GIBSON, ALEXANDER REGINALD (1872-1941)

GIBSON, ALEXANDER REGINALD, Presbyterian minister, Chatham and Newcastle, 1934-37; b. Seaforth, Ont., 24 Sep 1872, s/o John G. Gibson and Elizabeth Muir; m. 1900, Frances A. Watson, of Aberdeenshire, Scotland; d. Brockville, Ont., 21 Jan 1941.

Alexander R. Gibson, BA, was educated in Hamilton, Ont., and was working there as a "clothier" at the time of his marriage. He was later trained for the ministry at Knox College, Toronto, and was ordained in 1912, at age forty. He served in Ontario until 1931 and then at Montague, P.E.I. In 1934 he accepted a call to Chatham and Newcastle.

Gibson may have been the first Canadian minister to be inducted into the Presbyterian charge of Chatham and Newcastle subsequent to church union in 1925. Resident ministers during the years 1926-1928 and 1930-31, respectively, were the Rev. William Stewart, formerly of Pittsburgh, Pa, and the Rev. George J. Squires, DD, formerly of Boston. Much of the time the pulpits were vacant or occupied by supply ministers.

Gibson conducted the first service in the 'new' St James Presbyterian Church, which opened in the former Temperance Hall in Newcastle in November 1934. He remained in the charge until 1937, when he returned to Ontario. He ministered in the Brockville area during the four years prior to his death in 1941, at age sixty-eight. His wife and a son survived him.