CAPTAIN MATTHEW HENRY GIBSON MC AND BAR
ROYAL IRISH RIFLES
29TH OCTOBER 1918 AGE 28
BURIED: DUHALLOW A.D.S. CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Having returned from Mexico in 1915, Matthew Henry Gibson enlisted and took a commission in the 12th Irish Rifles. He joined his regiment in France on 6 June 1916.
Promoted Temporary Lieutenant the following year, by the time of his death a year later he was a Temporary Captain. One of his two MCs was gazetted on 18 October 1917, the citation published in the London Gazette on 2 December 1918.
"For great determination and gallantry. He was ordered to attack and clear up a village which was a nest of machine guns. After one and a half hours' severe house to house fighting, he succeeded in establishing his company on the far side of the village. Being short of officers, on six separate occasions he personally led his platoons forward, and captured four machine guns at the point of the bayonet.
M.C. gazetted 18th October 1917"
London Gazette 2 December 1918
The citation for his other MC was published on 7 March 1918:
"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in rallying men of other units who were falling back owing to loss of their officers, leading them forward again and again and holding on to his position under heavy fire."
Gibson died of wounds near Ypres on 29 October 1918. The 12th Irish Rifles had been withdrawn from the line with the rest of the 36th Ulster Division on the 27th, but had been in action on the 25th. The History of the 36th Ulster Division recorded that the work of 12th Irish Rifles, "was probably the best performed by that battalion, amid much good work accomplished since the beginning of offensive operations. Repeatedly the men had charged in upon houses defended by machine-guns, and bayoneted the detachments". Perhaps this was when Matthew Gibson's luck ran out.
Matthew Henry Gibson was the second of three sons of David Gibson, a Bookseller's Manager, and his wife, Annie. The family lived in Belfast. In the 1911 census, Matthew Gibson gave his occupation as House Agent. I haven't been able to discover what he was doing in Mexico.