| The History of Coagh booklet lists Lieutenant Matthew Gibson as having served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the war.
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| Matthew J Gibson was the youngest son of Matthew and Emma Gibson. Matthew Gibson and Emma Cowan were married on 23rd July 1885 in the district of Cookstown.
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| Matthew Gibson was born 7th September 1895. He was the youngest of five children, four surviving. All the children were born in Tullyweary, Cookstown.
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| Family: Matthew Gibson, Emma Gibson, John Gibson (born 21st May 1886), Anna Nancy Gibson (born 15th August 1887), Matilda Gibson (born 9th December 1889, died 9th January 1890, age 1 month), Alexander Gibson (born 23rd August 1891), Matthew Gibson (born 7th September 1895).
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| The 1901 census lists Matthew as age 5, living with the family at house 1 in Tullyweery, Coagh. His father was a farmer.
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| The 1911 census lists Matthew as age 15, living with the family at house 2 in Tullyweery, Coagh. Matthew was still at school.
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| The family lived at Tullyweary House, Ardtrea.
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| Matthew was a student at Cookstown Academy
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| Matthew went on to study medicine at Edinburgh University.
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| Having successfully completed his second year, he offered his services as probationer surgeon, and was accepted in due course.
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| 1915
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| In 1915, at the age of 19, Matthew Gibson volunteered for service and obtained a temporary commission in the Navy.
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| A report in the newspaper in 1915 records that he had been ordered to join the destroyer flotilla off the Scotch coast.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 11th September 1915:
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| Mr Matthew J Gibson, youngest son of Mr Matthew Gibson, Tullyweary House, Ardtrea, who was a medical student at Edinburgh University, volunteered for service and has obtained a temporary commission in the Navy as surgeon (probationer). He was a student of Cookstown Academy, and went Edinburgh to study medicine. Having successfully completed his second year, he offered his services as probationer surgeon, and was accepted in due course. He has been ordered to join the destroyer flotilla off the Scotch coast, and leaves on Monday to take up duty.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 11th September 1915: Cookstown Student Volunteers
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| Mr Matthew J Gibson, youngest son of Mr Matthew Gibson, Tullyweary House, Ardtrea, who was a medical student at Edinburgh University, volunteered for service and has obtained a temporary commission in the Navy as surgeon (probationer). He was a student of Cookstown Academy, and went Edinburgh to study medicine. Having successfully completed his second year, he offered his services as probationer surgeon, and was accepted in due course. He has been ordered to join the destroyer flotilla off the Scotch coast, and leaves on Monday taking with him the best wishes of his old school mates and all who know him.
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| Surgeon Probationer Matthew Gibson served on board the destroyer, H.M.S. Moresby. H.M.S. Moresby was one of one hundred and three destroyers of the "M" class built for the Royal Navy during the Great War.
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| 1916
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| Surgeon Probationer Gibson served on board during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea in June 1916.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 17th June 1916: Academy Boy in Naval Engagement
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| Surgeon Probationer Matthew Gibson, youngest son of Mr Gibson, Tullyweary, Cookstown, who was a medic student at Edinburgh, and volunteered, writing to his school mates in Cookstown, mentions that he was in the great naval battle in the North Sea, where the destroyers kept up a running fight with the retreating German Fleet, and his vessel, H.M.S. Moresby, sunk one of the enemy’s cruisers with a torpedo. His college chum, who occupied a similar position on the Nomad, went down with his vessel but was picked up and is a prisoner in Germany.
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| His college chum, David James Tosh Oswald, who was surgeon probationer on HMS Nomad, went down with his vessel but was picked up and became a prisoner of war.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 26th August 1916:
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| Mr Matthew Gibson, youngest son of Mr Gibson, Tullyweary, Cookstown, who is surgeon (probationer) in the Navy, has been home on a short furlough. His experiences include the great Jutland sea fight, in which the destroyer of which he is surgeon was engaged from sir David Beatty began to draw out the German Fleet till the latter retired, pursued by the destroyer flotilla. He re-joins today.
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| After one year on board HMS Moresby, he returned to Edinburgh University to complete his studies.
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| 1918
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| In the summer of 1918, he passed his final medical examination in Edinburgh University, and was conferred the degree of M.A. and B.Ch. He obtained the full medical qualification in the minimum period of five years in spite of the fact that he spent one year in the Navy.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 20th July 1918:
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| Mr Matthew J Gibson (youngest son of Mr Matthew Gibson, Tullyweary, Cookstown) has passed his final medical examination in Edinburgh University, and has just had conferred the degree of M.A. and B.Ch. He obtained the full medical qualification in the minimum period of five years in spite of the fact that he spent one year in the Navy, as surgeon probationer, and was surgeon in charge of a destroyer in the Battle of Jutland- the greatest naval fight during the present war. He intends to join the Royal Army Medical Corps and do his bit on land till the end of the war.
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| Lieutenant Matthew Gibson went on to serve with the Royal Army Medical Corps for the remainder of the war.
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| Lieutenant Gibson was 23 years old when the war ended.
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