Malcolm McGibbon (1894–1970), BSc 1922
Malcom McGibbon [1913-UC1-041] was born in 1894, in Inchture. He may have been educated at Harris Academy, Dundee. He arrived at St Andrews in 1913, at the age of 19, intending to study under the St Andrews Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers.
While at St Andrews, he became a member of the University OTC. At some point early in the Great War, he joined the 11th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), and trained at Cordford St Mary, before moving to billets in Bristol, Warminster, and Sutton Veny. He was promoted to temporary Second Lieutenant, then temporary Lieutenant (1915) and made full captain on 4 December 1917 . His battalion saw action at the Battle of Horseshoe Hill (1916), the Battles of Dorian (1917 and 1918), and the Pursuit to the Strumica Valley (September 1918). McGibbon led the first wave of attack during the second battle of Dorian (1918). The 11th was finally demobbed in 1919.
We currently have few records of McGibbon’s later life, but he clearly returned to St Andrews and completed a science degree, graduating B.Sc in 1922. In 1923, he was recorded in the University’s general council records as living in his home-town of Inchture.
Sometime in 1924, he took a position as Economic Botanist in Rangoon [now Yangon], as one of two members of staff in the Department of Agriculture in colonial Burma [now Myanmar]. He held this role until 1928.
He likely died in 1970, in Perth, at the age of 75.
This summary was written in May 2026 by Lola Lam, then a first-year MA student of International Relations and History at the University of St Andrews; additional information on his career was added by Aileen Fyfe.
Sources: USALM records; ‘Roll of Honour’ and military records; ‘List of Staffs of the Royal Botanic Garden…’ Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1925, 1928)