Charlie McGibbon was a free-scoring centre-forward who would surely have succeeded as a full-time pro had he been willing to leave the army. As a teenage soldier, he played for the Royal Artillery in his home-town of Portsmouth. He was 25, however, before he tried-out with bigger fry. As a sergeant based at the Ordnance College, Woolwich, he signed for Woolwich Arsenal of the Football League’s First Division. He never made their first-team but fared much better in the Southern League, with New Brompton, Crystal Palace and Southampton, in turn. In 1907-08, he scored two hat-tricks in successive rounds of the FA Cup for New Brompton, the second one of which eliminated First Division Sunderland. Another hat-trick, in October 1908, helped Palace to secure a 4-4 draw at The Dell and helps to explain why Southampton signed him, in May 1909, when his military duties took him home to Portsmouth. By mid-February of the 1909-10 season, he had scored 19 Southern League goals, including two more hat-tricks, in 23 appearances.

The following month, however, he was back at Woolwich and again playing for Arsenal. His three goals in four games helped the Gunners to escape relegation, but he thereupon returned to the Southern League, with Leyton and then Reading. At Leyton he broke his right leg on Boxing Day 1910 but he appeared to have made a good recovery because he re-signed for Southampton in November 1911, but before he could mount a challenge for a first-team place, he was found guilty by the FA of taking illegal payments – an amateur throughout his part-time career, he had accepted two guineas a week from a Leyton director for expenses.

Charlie was declared professional and suspended from all football, until the ban was lifted in March 1919.

Meanwhile, he had served in the First World War as a clerk with the Royal Garrison Artillery but not before spending some time on active fighting duty, because at Xmas 1914 he captained the RA side that took on the RE in a charity match played at The Front.

When the war ended he became the Chief Clerk in the Statistical Offices of the Medical Corps at Netley, where he played for the works-team for a while.He later worked at Supermarine in Woolston and remained living locally, while his son, Doug McGibbon, pursued a war-interrupted career with the Saints. In 1939 he was the manager of the Supermarine Sports Club in Woolston. He was no mean cricketer, in July 1919, Charlie McGibbon played for Hampshire, against Yorkshire in the County Championship at Dewsbury. He batted twice, once not out, for one run and bowled six wicket-less overs for 10 runs. In 1933, 1934 & 1936 he was British Legion South Eastern area billiards champion, representing Netley and Hampshire and in 1936 reached the national semi-finals.