Doug McGibbon

Southampton

McGibbon was born in Netley, Hampshire, the son of Charlie McGibbon (1880–1954), who was a centre forward for several clubs, including Southampton, in the 1900s. At the time Doug was born, his father had retired and was employed as the Chief Clerk in the Statistical Office at Netley Hospital. Doug McGibbon played his youth football with the Air Service Training at Hamble. During a charity cricket match, he approached the Southampton manager Tom Parker for a trial. Parker gave McGibbon a game with the "Saints" "A" team, against Lymington, during which he scored a hat trick. This was sufficient to persuade Southampton to offer him a professional contract, which he signed in December 1938, going on to make his first-team debut in the final match of the 1938–39 season, replacing Reg Tomlinson in a 2–0 defeat at Plymouth. McGibbon remained in Southampton at the start of the Second World War, making 16 appearances (scoring 7 goals) in the wartime leagues in 1939–40 before he moved to Swindon to work as an aircraft mechanic as part of the war effort. While at Swindon, he played for Swindon Railway in 1944 and then for Swindon Town in the 1945–46 season where he made five appearances, scoring three goals. Swindon Town approached Southampton with a view to signing him on a full-time basis, but the Saints board refused and McGibbon returned to Southampton. During the 1945–46 season, Southampton played in the League South pending the resumption of League football…

In the summer of 1951, McGibbon dropped out of League football, moving to Newport, Monmouthshire to play for Lovells Athletic in the Welsh League. His footballing days came to an abrupt end when he smashed his head following a collision with a cross bar. After a spell in hospital, he returned to Hamble to work as an aircraft engineer and then as a sports officer. He later moved to Isleworth in Middlesex where he was sports secretary for Gillette before finishing his working life with Sperry Flight Systems in Basingstoke. On his retirement, he initially settled in Isleworth before spending the last few years of his life in an Aylesbury care home, where he died in October 2002.