Fred Gibson (cricketer)

Alfred Leonard Gibson (13 February 1912 – 28 June 2013)[1] was a Jamaican-born English cricketer. Gibson was a right-handed batsman. On 13 February 2012, he became the 15th former first-class player to reach 100 years of age, and the 5th county cricketer to do so.[2]

Born at Devon, Jamaica, where he was taught cricket by the manager of a banana plantation and once played in a match featuring George Headley.[3] Gibson moved to England in 1944, accompanied by a friend,[3] where he joined the Royal Air Force and saw service in the later stages of World War II while stationed near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire.[2][3] Following the war, Leicestershire County Cricket Club secretary Cecil Wood was given the task of building a team for the resumption of first-class cricket, with Gibson impressing Wood in friendly one-day matches against Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire in 1945. He was offered the chance to play for Leicestershire in 1946,[2] making two first-class appearances against Yorkshire in the County Championship at Headingley and Oxford University at the University Parks.[4] He scored a total of 17 runs in his two matches, at an average of 5.66, with a high score of 11.[5] He suffered arm and head injuries in a car accident midway through the 1946 season and was not reengaged by the county.[2]

He later married an English woman and worked as a technician for Rolls-Royce. Gibson is also noted as being one of the first black persons to be elected as a councillor in England when he was elected to represent Mountsorrel on the local council.[6] Gibson died at a nursing home at Manton, Rutland on 28 June 2013. At the time of his death he was the second-oldest surviving county cricketer, behind Cyril Perkins.[1]