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John Gibson served as the British Acting Consul on Formosa from 1 July
1868 until his death on 28 July 1869. He succeeded Acting Consul George
Jamieson and was replaced by Acting Consul William Marsh Cooper.
John Gibson was born at Cullinaw, Buittle,
Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, on 8 February 1834, the youngest son of
Robert Gibson, a Farmer of 100 acres, and Rachel Dickson. Gibson was
educated in Edinburgh obtaining a degree in literature and qualifying as
a barrister. John Gibson joined the China Consular Service in 1857 from
the China Class at King’s College, London. His first posting was to
Shanghai [上海]
on 30 May 1859 and he was soon made a Junior Assistant in the Chinese
Secretary’s office, impressing many with his abilities. After taking
part in the 1860 campaign that led to the Peking Convention, Gibson was
posted to Tientsin [天津]
from 1861 to 1864, frequently acting as Consul during all four years. In
1863, when temporarily in charge at Tientsin, he was ordered to attach
himself to a high Manchu official, who, with the help of British
officers, was campaigning against the nearby Nienfei of the serious Nien
Rebellion [捻軍起義].
Acting outside his apparent orders to act only as an Interpreter, he
suffered a severe head wound whilst leading a successful cavalry charge
against the Nienfei rebels near Tientsin in 1863: this head wound
permanently affected his mind. After a posting to Amoy [廈門],
John Gibson took home leave in 1865 in the hope of making a full
recovery, and at least found himself a bride.
In 1867 he returned to China not fully recovered
and, unfortunately, his wife died almost immediately. The British
Minister, Sir Rutherford Alcock, for safety placed Gibson at Hankow [漢口]
under Consul Walter Henry Medhurst, a well regarded officer upon his
return. Yet Gibson, being left temporarily in charge at Hankow, managed
to get into much trouble over a consular court involving an insolvent
British firm which owed huge amounts to local Chinese merchants.
Gibson’s judgement was such that, in Alcock’s opinion, it had made the
British authorities appear as accomplices in a massive swindle. Alcock
forthwith transferred John Gibson to Taiwan [臺灣],
which he considered as a quiet backwater where Gibson would be unable to
get into any more trouble. How mistaken was Alcock’s belief.
On 1 July 1868 John Gibson arrived at Takow
[打狗]
to replace Acting Consul George Jamieson, who ominously remained on the
island for a couple of weeks to acquaint Gibson with the various issues
under discussion with the Chinese authorities, there being a new Circuit
Intendant, or, colloquially, Tao-t’ai [道台], Liang Yuan-kuei [梁元桂]. Even
on Gibson’s second day at Takow reports came in on a stabbing attack on
James Davidson Hardie, Tait & Co’s Agent. Jamieson departed, and the
Intendant refused to accept Gibson’s authority as the new Acting Consul.
Gibson immediately requested a gunboat be sent to provide protection for
the British subjects in south Formosa, and to enforce recognition of his
position as Her Majesty's Acting Consul for Taiwan. The gunboat,
H.M.S. Bustard, under Lieutenant Cecil Frederick William
Johnson, arrived in early August; however H.M.S. Bustard, while
providing a measure of protection for the British subjects at Takow,
failed to impress the Circuit Intendant sufficiently to recognize Gibson
as Acting Consul. On 22 August 1868 Gibson handed over the protection of
British lives and properties to the Royal Naval forces.
On 25 August 1868 H.M.S. Icarus, under
Commander Lord Charles Thomas Montagu-Douglas-Scott, arrived at Takow
and two days later Gibson and Montagu-Douglas-Scott set off to Tainan,
with a guard of 20 men and several officers, to meet with the Circuit
Intendant. The meeting did not go well. The Tao-t’ai flew into a violent
rage and struck Gibson twice on the hand with the back of his fan,
before retreating into his private apartments not to be seen again.
Gibson, despairing of any meaningful communication with the Chinese
authorities, ordered all British subjects away form the port of Anping [安平]
which he then closed to British trade. The Tao-t’ai promptly promised to
meet nearly all of Gibson’s demands, whereupon Gibson reopened the port
of Anping, but then dragged his feet in taking any action on the
demands.
Meanwhile Lieutenant Thornhaugh Philip Gurdon,
commanding H.M.S. Algerine, had arrived, and Acting Consul Gibson
ordered Lieutenant Gurdon to occupy the Anping forts, which Gurdon duly
did on 26 November 1868, regrettably killing 11 Chinese soldiers who
refused to surrender. The Tao-t’ai came down to Anping to clarify
Gibson’s terms on 29 November and the matter was settled on 2 December
1868. For Gurdon the affair led to his promotion from Lieutenant to
Commander on 1 June 1869 ‘for his gallantry and conduct’. But for Gibson
quite a different fate awaited.
At first there was nothing but praise from the
British for Gibson’s actions. Consul Robert Swinhoe, making a brief
return to Taiwan in December told Alcock, who had approved of Gibson’s
early actions, that Gibson was about the best man who had been in
Formosa, and that his firmness and high notions of dignity were just
what was needed. Alcock earlier in his career had taken similar gunboat
actions, and Consul Medhurst, acting with Alcock, had taken an almost
identical action as Gibson at the same time at Chinkiang [鎮江].
Communications took a long time, for in March Gibson was writing that
the atmosphere in Formosa was now calm and peaceable.
However, in London the Admiralty asked the
Foreign Secretary, the 4th Earl of Clarendon, whether he approved of
Gibson’s actions. Clarendon’s view was wholly unfavourable, and he
instructed Alcock to remove Gibson forthwith as an example to all such
consular actions. Privately Alcock wrote that he would try to get Gibson
home and pensioned off; and deplored Gurdon’s promotion. In May John
Gibson learnt that he was being transferred to Canton [廣州]
in disgrace, but still considered that the results of the action
condemned as a blunder had been good. In June he was relieved by William
Marsh Cooper, who found him looking extremely gaunt and the office in
disarray. Cooper nevertheless praised Gibson’s courage, firmness and
sense of duty. Gibson did not get to Canton. He arrived in Amoy
extremely depressed and mere skin and bones and was too ill to go
further, and died there on 28 July 1869 of consumption.
Many regarded John Gibson as a martyr and the
victim of harsh Foreign Office treatment. He died insolvent and a
Testimonial fund was set up by Elles & Co to receive money from his
friends and colleagues in Amoy and Formosa. In Galloway Gibson’s widowed
80-year-old mother and invalid sister, Margaret, who had been entirely
dependent on him, were saved from absolute want only by a small annuity
purchased for them by his friends in China.
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