Gibson, Finlay: parasol maker and soldier

This slip of paper gives a neat summary of Finlay Gibson's career, with personal description and showing his occupation as parasol maker. On discharge, 1 June 1880,  he gives his intended place of residence as Stevenston, Ayrshire.  He was attested at the age of 18, 15th Hussars, at Westminster, 7 April 1859. When he left the Army he was nearly 40.

The Afghan Campaign medal to which Finlay Gibson was entitled. Contrary to family anecdote, he was not on the infamous March to Kandahar - for which a different medal would have been awarded. Sadly the whereabouts of Finlay's campaign medal is unknown though it was present and displayed in my relative's house for many years when I was growing up. Please preserve family memorabilia or donate them to a museum if there is nobody suitable in the family who is interested enough to look after them.

Souvenir Saturday: Finley Gibson 1841 - 1924

Finley (or Finlay) Gibson, 1841 - 1924, was entitled to the Afghan Campaign Medal, seen above,  as he served in that conflict. My great grandfather, he was in the 15th Hussars from attestation at the age of 18 years in 1859 to his discharge at the age of nearly 40 in 1880. His papers indicate that he intended residing at Stevenston in Ayrshire, though he was a Londoner by birth (birthplace St George's,  Borough, East London, England). 

The reason would become clear. I discovered that living in that Scottish village was his  widowed sister, Margaret McIntyre, with her children. Finley and his brother, William, also a soldier, both made their home with Margaret for a while. Finley married Annie Bell in Stevenston in May 1881 and started his own family. By 1911 he was Foreman of the Dynamite Factory at Ardeer, known locally as the 'dinnamit'. Several of his children worked in the factory - a dangerous environment as explosions could, and did, occur. 

Annie Bell married Finley Gibson in 1881