[5][6] Gardiner played amateur football for Queen's Park,[7] joining in 1930 from John Street School in Bridgeton.
[1] During his time with Queen's Park, he represented the Scottish amateur national team in games against England, Wales and Ireland.
During the game against Poland he was booed by the crowd for body charging several players and knocking over Polish left winger Hubert Gad at a time when Great Britain were losing 5–1.
[10] In the 1950s and 1960s, he was general manager of the Kelvin Hall exhibition centre in Glasgow.
[11] His son is Barry Gardiner, a politician,[11] while grandson Jacob Gardiner-Smith is also a footballer.