George Gilson was named on the Toowoomba British Association Honour Board unveiled in May 1918, alongside his brothers Francis and James, and stepbrother Harry Younger.
All four had played for Kleinton Rovers between 1909 and 1911 at a time when their father ran pottery in Kleinton, slightly north of Toowoomba. George and James went on to play for Toowoomba club Cities in 1912. The same year, the family donated the Gilson Cup to the Toowoomba British Football Association to be awarded to the winners of the B-grade division. The Gilson Cup would be awarded on and off for various competitions until the 1970s.
George and several siblings had been born and raised in Ipswich before they moved to Kleinton. The family moved back to Ipswich district around 1912, having newly established the Goodna Brick and Pipe Works. George later worked as a storekeeper in Ipswich proper by the time he enlisted in May 1915. By November, he was on the Greek island of Lemnos where illness saw him admitted to hospital. He did not recover until late December, at which time the evacuation of Gallipoli was well underway.
Instead, George, with the 15th Battalion, was sent to France in June 1916. Here he won the Military Medal for duty undertaken in April 1917. The Commonwealth Gazette no. 169, dated 4 October 1917, described how Gilson earned the medal:
Pioneer Gilson is recommended for splendid courage and devotion to duty in the attack on HINDENBURG LINE South of REINCOURT on 11th April, 1917. He brought in wounded over ground swept by enemy Machine guns and controlled by enemy snipers who showed no respect to Stretcher Bearers and it was entirely due to the noble efforts of the Stretcher Bearers that over fifty of our wounded were brought back to our lines a distance of a half mile. He was noticed for gallant work at Pozieres in August, 1916.
Gilson survived the war and started back for Australia in March 1919. In September he married Kathleen Ann (Catholine Anne) Coogan. The Brisbane Courier of 4 November 1915 reported a
meeting of the sisters of the Goodna boys who have enlisted with the Expeditionary Forces was held at the residence of Mrs. J. Gilson on October 27… It was decided to form a club, the object of which is to raise funds to provide comforts for all the boys who have left.
Among those who attended the meeting to form the Our Boys’ Own Comfort Club were Gilson’s sister Myrtle, and two Coogan sisters, likely Kathleen and sister Ellen. A letter published in the Queensland Times on 18 March 1916 suggested Gilson served with Kathleen’s brother Joe Coogan.
Gilson and Kathleen moved to Oxley in the early 1920s and over 10 children in all. They were still living ther when the Courier-Mail of 17 May 1939 reported on the birth of their second set of non-identical twins.
George Gilson died in 1963.