Lieutenant Colonel W. W. P. Gibsone, D.S.O.
&
Lieutenant Colonel A. G. Vincent
40th (Nova Scotia) Battalion

The next unit was the Fortieth. The command was given to a professional soldier not a Nova Scotian. After it had been recruited he was ordered to England. The command then devolved on an officer who had come to Nova Scotia but recently.

(Maj. J.W. Maddin, ex-MP to Borden, 9 Dec 1916)

Born on 6 June 1872 in Quebec City, William Waring Primrose Gibsone was a professional army officer with the Royal Canadian Regiment. In February 1915, he was appointed to command the 40th Battalion. After receiving a staff posting to England in June, command of the 40th went to Arthur Gustave Vincent, a veteran of the Royal Marine Light Infantry. Born on 17 November 1862 in Saint Peter’s, Guernsey, Channel Islands, Vincent enlisted in the R.M.L.I. at the age of nineteen in 1881. He retired with the rank of major in February 1901 and remained on the reserve list until 1912.

Vincent led the battalion to England on board the S.S. Saxonia in October 1915. The 40th provided reinforcement drafts until it was absorbed into the 26th Reserve Battalion under Vincent’s command. He was briefly attached to the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles on an instructional tour of the front in April 1916. He resigned his commission from the Canadian Army in April 1917 to take command of the Royal Marines camp at Southwick.

Gibsone served in France as quartermaster with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division from 1916 until 1918. He was mentioned in General Haig’s dispatches and received the Distinguished Service Order. He remained with the army after the war and retired at the rank of major general in 1936. He died in Montreal on 3 November 1957.

Gibsone- Digitized Service File (LAC):
http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B3508-S049