JIMMY’S OWN STORY…

Jimmy’s own story began in the previous century, born James Gribbin at 2am on Tuesday, 22 October 1895 in the family home at Mack’s Land (sometimes known as Mack’s Row), Main Street, Baillieston on the eastern outskirts of Glasgow. Note the spelling of the surname, albeit one explanation for the confusion mentioned earlier may be that perhaps his father could not read or write, as it was his mark rather than signature on Jimmy’s birth certificate.

Jimmy’s parents were James Gribbin, a coalminer from Coatbridge, and his wife Mary (nee Nichol, later shown as Nicol), a blacksmith’s worker born in Barkip, a mining hamlet between Beith and Dalry in North Ayrshire commonly referred to as The Den. The 1881 Census shows that the Nichol family had moved from Ireland to Ayrshire around 1870, as 10-year-old Mary was the first of their children to be born in Scotland, her 13-year-old sister Bridget and two elder brothers all being Irish-born. In the spring of 1881, coalminer James Nichol, his wife Catherine, their four children, three-year-old granddaughter and a boarder – another Irish coalminer named Daniel McMillan, who may have been related to Catherine – were all living together in a house where just one room had a window at 79 Greenend in Old Monkland.

Seven years later, Mary Nichol married James Gribbin. The young couple – James was 20 and his bride just 18 – wed in St Brigit’s [sic]Catholic Church, Baillieston on Saturday, 14 July 1888, as a fledgling football club formed by Irishmen for the best yet saddest of reasons just a few miles away to the west was preparing for its first-ever competitive match, a Glasgow Exhibition Cup tie with Paisley outfit Abercorn at Kelvingrove on the opening day of August. The Gribbins’ yet-to-be-born son Jimmy would have a huge part to play in the development of that club, and in particular two of its most famous figures, more than six decades later.

Jimmy’s paternal grandparents were also from Ireland. Blacksmith John Gribbin and his wife Margaret (nee Murphy) were married in Belfast in July 1856 but had settled in Summerlee in Old Monkland by the time their son James was born on 19 October 1867. Both John and Margaret had sadly passed away before the marriage of James and Mary in July 1888, whilst Jimmy’s maternal grandparents, James and Catherine Nichol, had both survived at that point.

By the time of the April 1891 Census, Jimmy’s parents James and Mary Gribbin are settled into their home at Mack’s Land on Baillieston’s Main Street with their two infant daughters, Catherine (known as Kate and born on 5 February 1890) and Elizabeth (known as Lizzie and born just a few weeks before the Census, on 16 March 1891). All their neighbours worked at the nearby colliery, suggesting the housing was linked to James’ employment. On 4 December 1892, the couple would see the arrival of their first son, John, but the first of several family tragedies would strike within seven months as baby John passed away at home on 9 July 1893 of tabes mesenterica, a form of tuberculosis which affects the mesenteric lymphatic system.

At the time of baby John’s death, Mary Gribbin was already expecting her fourth child, and a daughter named after her was duly born at home in Mack’s Land on 26 January 1894. Like the three previous offspring, baby Mary’s birth was recorded with the surname Gribbon. That would finally change with the arrival of a fifth child in October of the following year, as their second son, James – to be known as Jimmy and the subject of our article – had his birth recorded as Gribbin, thus reverting to the traditional family name.

Four days later, on Saturday, 26 October 1895, the first Celtic match of Jimmy’s life would result in an 11-0 win over Dundee at Celtic Park, to this day a record victory for the club, with Jimmy Blessington, Johnny Madden and Sandy McMahon all scoring doubles and even Willie Maley on target. Celts would go on to reclaim their Scottish League title from Hearts in the spring, a third championship in four seasons for The Bould Bhoys. I guess Jimmy just brought us luck from the offset. It would be the same at his passing.

On a much more sombre note, on the afternoon of Jimmy’s birth – Tuesday, 22 October 1895 – there was a major railway incident in Paris, the iconic outcome forever captured on camera, as an express train crashed through the exterior wall of the Gare de l’Ouest in Montparnasse to land on the street more than 30 feet below.

As the first Census data of the new century was recorded in late March 1901, the Gribbin family had expanded to include six children, Kate (11), Lizzie (10), Mary (7) and Jimmy (5) now joined by two-year-old Margaret (born 23 August 1898, birth registered by her grandmother Catherine Nicol) and a second baby to be given the Christian name John, born 7 August 1900. The two latest additions to the family were born at Mack’s Row and were once again registered with the surname Gribbon. Like the Nicols back in 1881, all eight members of the Gribbin family at that time were living in a home where only one room had a window.

By April 1911 the family had relocated to a two-roomed property at 8 Camp Road, Baillieston. However, the Census report of that year reveals a grim story, the only obvious sign being that youngest son John is no longer listed, one of five of the couple’s 10 children recorded as not having survived to that point.

Jimmy – at 15 now working in the colliery beside his father as a coalminer hewer – is the only living son, sharing the home with his parents and sisters Kate (21), Lizzie (20), Mary (17) – all three listed as Preserve Workers – and Margaret (8). A closer inspection of the age profiles reveals that Margaret was actually the second of the daughters to be given that Christian name. She was born on 12 April 1903 at Pender’s Row, Baillieston, registered as Maggie Gribbon, exactly 15 months after the original Margaret died of measles, bronchitis and the dreadful facial infection cancrum oris on 12 January 1902 at Dyke Street, Baillieston, aged just three years and four months.

Just 15 days after the infant Margaret Gribbin passed away, the family were in mourning once more. You may recall that the Gribbins also had two sons named John, the first born in December 1892 but dead within seven months. Tragically, the second son to be given that name did not reach his second birthday. He had been born in August 1900 but died aged 17 months at Dyke Street on 27 January 1902, just two weeks after his older sister. In another bizarre and cruel twist, John had contracted the same tabes mesenterica illness which killed his brother of the same name a decade earlier.

As if losing two infants within two weeks was not bad enough, there was more heartache to follow. Incredibly, James and Mary Gribbin were blessed with, then lost, another two children in a little over three years that decade. Agnes Gribbon was born on 25 September 1906 at 58 Buchanan Street, Baillieston and died in the same place on 9 April 1908, aged 18 months, suffering from rickets and acute bronchitis. And once again, Mary Gribbin had to bear the loss of a baby whilst expecting another. The couple’s 10th and final child was another son, William, born later that same year, on 25 November 1908 at Buchanan Street. He died on 6 January 1910, aged just 13 months, and had been suffering from pneumonia for three weeks.

Sadly, such horrific infant mortality was not unique to the Gribbin family. The McGowans next door at 10 Camp Road had 12 children, only seven of whom had survived at that point.

For the most recent census records available, those of 1921, we learn that the family are still living at 8 Camp Road, but that Jimmy’s mum Mary has passed away. She died a few months after the end of the First World War, in the early hours of 26 January 1919 at the family home, 8 Camp Road, Baillieston. She is recorded as being 46 years old, which doesn’t align with any other records going all the way back to that 1881 Census, and I believe she was actually 48. She had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage the day before and her death was witnessed and registered by James, her husband of over 30 years. In June 1921, 52-year-old widower James Gribbin is sharing the Camp Road home with daughter Kate (31), now listed as a housekeeper, 25-year-old son Jimmy, no longer a colliery worker but a steelwork labourer with Boyd’s of Shettleston, and youngest daughter Maggie, now aged 18, a gardener at Finlay Bros. Nursery in Baillieston.

So at 25, Jimmy described himself as a steelwork labourer, but what about his football career?

We’ll look at that in the next part of this story, which will be published tomorrow on The Celtic Star, the Celtic site like no other.

Hail Hail!

Matt Corr

With grateful thanks to Pat Woods, Tom Campbell, Manus Gallagher, Ken Ross, Nikki Guthrie, Elaine Currie, Margaret Gribbon, John Gribbon, John Tracey, Philomena Tracey and the wider Gribbon family.

Follow Matt on Twitter/X @Boola_vogue

Matt Corr’s three Celtic books are available in hardback from Celtic Star Books and also on Kindle via Amazon. The books are currently HALF PRICE at our boostore: celticstarbooks.com/shop