Although he was a good scholar, Gibson left school at the age of eleven and held a variety of jobs before moving to England in 1910 to become an attendant at Winwick Asylum in Warrington.
He represented the Trades Union Congress on the Nurses Salaries Committee chaired by Lord Rushcliffe which published two reports in 1943.
In 1949 the Lynskey Tribunal found that Gibson had used his official influence to assist Sidney Stanley to set up a business in expectation of personal gain.
The subsequent scandal compelled Gibson to resign from all official posts, although he continued to deny all the allegations.
At some time before the First World War Gibson married Ellen Crossfield, the daughter of a Manchester hotelier, but she was killed in a tram accident in Blackpool.