"D" Battery, 122nd Brigade, R.F.A.

Awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in the London Gazette of 3 September 1918.

Gibson was a native of Burnley, Lancashire.

The citation for the Distinguished Conduct Medal published in the London Gazette reads, "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When nearly all his detachment had been killed or wounded, Sergeant Gibson, who was No. 1, kept his gun in action throughout the night and early morning under a heavy bombardment of high explosive and gas shells. He helped to dress the wounded men in the open, and by his courage and coolness enabled several ammunition wagons and their teams to get away, though many of the horses had been killed. The gun and detachment next to him had been blown up, but, though gassed and wounded in the arm, he refused to leave his gun, setting a fine example of gallantry and endurance during a critical time."

The Burnley Express of 15 June 1918 reported, A GALLANT SERGEANT, D.C.M. Awarded.

The Distinguished Conduct Medal has been awarded to W/2203 Sergeant Hayden Gibson, R.F.A. (Welsh Howitzers), son of Mrs. Gibson, of 6, Pritchard Street, Burnley. Sergeant Gibson enlisted in February 1915. He has won this high honour for gallantry on May 8th. Particulars are not yet at hand, but subsiquently he was badly shaken by a shell bursting two yards away from where he was stationed. The shell killed four men and wounded another. Before enlisting he was employed as a taper at Walmsley's Peel Mill, Rosegrove, and was a prominent member of the mill football club, in connection with which he has won two medals. His two brothers are both serving and all three enlisted voluntarily in the Royal Field Artillery. Sergeant George Gibson is in the Burnley Howitzers and Driver Rowland Gibson is with the Blackburn Territorials. They are all connected with the Enon Baptist Chapel and are on its roll of honour.