The Norman Gooding Collection

A scarce Great War casualty M.M. group of three awarded to Unit Administrator Mrs. Margaret A. C. Gibson, Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, who used all her leadership experience to prevent serious loss of life during a German air raid on her camp in Abbeville

Military Medal, G.V.R. (Unit-Admtr: Mrs. M. A. C. Gibson. Q.M.A.A.C.) unit partially officially corrected - see footnote; British War and Victory Medals (U.Adtr. M. A. C. Gibson. Q.M.A.A.C.) extremely fine (3) £1,800-£2,200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Norman Gooding Collection.

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M.M. London Gazette 8 July 1918:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy air-raid when in charge of a Q.M.W.A.A.C. [sic] camp which was completely demolished by enemy bombs, one of which fell within a few feet of the trench in which the women were sheltering. During the raid Unit-Administrator Gibson showed a splendid example. Her courage and energy sustained the women under most trying circumstances, and undoubtedly prevented serious loss of life.’

The error to the initials of the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps was corrected in the London Gazette of 29 August 1918, and undoubtedly accounts for the official correction to the naming of the unit on the MM.

Margaret Annabella Campbell Gibson was born on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, the elder daughter of The Honourable Thomas Elliott, Auditor-General of Mauritius. Educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, the Glasgow Herald and Dundee Courier newspapers announced her marriage to John MacDougall Gibson, Substitute Procureur and Advocate-General, at St. Paul’s Church, Vacoa, Mauritius, in February 1883. The marriage was brief, Gibson being widowed not long thereafter.

Emigrating to South Africa, Gibson was placed in charge of the Princess Christian Hostel at Bloemfontein from 1907 to 1910. Appointed Warden of the Governesses’ Institution, Darbishire House, Manchester, in 1913, she attested for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in July 1917 and went to France two months later as Unit Administrator in charge of the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps camp at Abbeville. At this time military ranks among the Q.M.A.A.C. were more commensurate with factories than army units, with ‘Workers’, ‘Forewomen’ and two grades of ‘Officials’ or ‘Administrators’ replacing private soldiers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Officers. In consequence, it fell to Gibson as senior rank to tutor and chaperone the young women under her command, oversee their living arrangements, and supervise their behaviour.

Gibson later detailed these days in letters to her sister, May. Offering very personal insights, she requested everything from woolly socks and snow shoes, to glass for her office windows and pieces of linoleum to cover the cracks on the floors. Clearly fond and proud of her ‘girls’, she was keen to advocate that the popular fantasies at home about promiscuity and adventure had very little foundation; the most glamorous moments came via games of tennis between her lady motor drivers and the somewhat elderly soldiers stationed behind the lines.

The German Spring Offensive of 21 March 1918 changed everything for Gibson and her charges. Recognising the importance of communications and administrative centres, the German High Command directed repeated air attacks on Abbeville which was essentially a ‘hub’ through which Allied resources and orders flowed. Further bombing sorties targeted hospitals and important infrastructure, the women of the Q.M.A.A.C. remaining at their posts to the surprise of many back home; the First Chief Controller Helen Gwyyne-Vaughan further stated to the contemporary press that since her members were replacing soldiers, then they must expect to be shot at! These terrible experiences were later said to confirm the women’s right to wear khaki, the bombing redrawing the line separating combatants and non combatants and, by extension, redefining the rights of women who now possessed de facto, combatant status.

On the night of 29-30 May 1918, the unthinkable happened at Abbeville when a bomb fell into a protection trench. Eight Workers died in the blast and a ninth died later of her wounds, their average age being just 22 years. With her camp destroyed, Gibson was transferred to Dieppe and was later awarded the Military Medal, the first Q.M.A.A.C. Administrator to receive such an honour. Sadly, she did not live long enough to receive the decoration; sent to the American Hospital at Le Treport, she died of dysentery on 17 September 1918.

Sold with the original letter of transmittal for the Great War pair, named to ‘U.A. Mrs. M. A. C. Gibson, Q.M.A.A.C.’, and copied research.