Born:
June 11, 1893 – August 19, 1915

Call Year:
Law Student 1914

Distinguished as:
Lieutenant with the 15th 48th Highlanders of Canada Battalion

Biography:

Francis Malloch Gibson was born on 11 June 1893 in Hamilton, Ontario to Major General Sir John Morison Gibson, KCMG, the 10th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and Lady Elizabeth Stewart (Malloch) Gibson. He had two sisters, Margaret and Eugenia, and two brothers, Colin and Hope.

In 1911, Gibson graduated from Highfield School in Hamilton, a preparatory school for the Royal Military College. He then went on to attend and Royal Military College, from which he graduated in June of 1914. Gibson was in the same RMC graduating class as Major Hugh Ethelred McCarthy Ince. Twelve cadets from the RMC Class of 1914 were killed in WWI.

Gibson was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada as a student in the Summer of 1914. He was articling under G.H. Levy of the firm Gibson, Levy & Gibson in Hamilton. Gibson enlisted as an Officer with the 15th (48th Highlanders of Canada) Battalion in September of 1914. The 15th Battalion was authorized on 1 September 1914 and embarked for Britain on 26 September 1914. The Battalion arrived in France on 15 February 1915 with the First Contingent. The 15th fought as part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division in France and Flanders throughout the War. Gibson went over to France with the 15th Battalion in April of 1915.

In his book The Red Watch, Colonel J.A. Currie writes: Lieutenant Frank Gibson... was in the clearing hospital at Poperinghe suffering from a wound in his leg, which it will be remembered he received at Ypres, when he heard from some of our wounded men that the battalion had been badly cut up and the officers gone. He left his cot, evaded the surgeons and came down five miles to the transports. Nothing would do but he must accompany me back to the trenches. Never did a young man show greater devotion to duty and forgetfulness of self than did Lieut. Frank Gibson. I asked him if he felt able to take over the duties of adjutant and signalling officer and he immediately consented to do so. He was one of six graduates of the Royal Military College that held commands in our battalion. He later lost his life at Givenchy....Gibson was killed on 19 August 1915. He was 22 and is buried at Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery (IX.C.2.) in Armentieres, France. He is also memorialized at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. Prior to enlisting with the CEF, Gibson served in the Militia with the 13th Royal Regiment.

Source: Shea, E. Patrick, CS “The Great War Law Student Memorial Project,” pg. 60.