Durham Light Infantry - George Cross

George Cross

Sergeant Michael Gibson of the 9th Bomb Disposal Company, Royal Engineers was posthumously awarded the George Cross for the conspicuous gallantry he displayed on 18 October 1940 in Coventry in defusing a large unexploded bomb. He was in charge of the operation to dig out and defuse the device when another bomb exploded nearby. The bomb he was working on then began 'hissing' and seemed likely to explode, so he sent the rest of his team to shelter and continued to defuse the device alone.

Gibson was born in 1906 and served with the Durham Light Infantry before joining the Royal Engineers. He was killed a year later, at the age of 34, when a 250 kg bomb exploded after it had been removed by truck from the housing estate in which it had fallen. 6 other men were killed in the blast, Second Lieutenant Alexander Fraser Campbell and Sappers William Gibson, Richard Gilchrest, Jack Plumb, Ronald William Skelton and Ernest Arthur Stote.