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William John Gibbons (born January 7th 1958) is a Scottish-Canadian explorer, author and filmmaker. Gibbons was born in Stranraer, a town located on the south-west coast of Scotland in the county of Dumfries and Galloway.

HISTORY

He is the oldest of six children by John Denis Gibbons (1930 - 1999) and Ruth Isobel Gibbons, nee: Dougan, (1936 - 2006). Gibbons and three younger siblings spend much of their early years in the 1960s Bicester, Oxen, and in Aden (now Yemen), due to his father's military service as an NCO in the Royal Pioneer Corps (now the Second Pioneer Regiment) before returning to Stranraer in 1967. The constant changes in global locations and schools had a detrimental effect on Gibbons and he left high school at sixteen years of age without any educational qualifications. He worked in several menial dead-end jobs in Stranraer before eventually traveling around the United Kingdom, working and considering his future. He enlisted in the British Army in 1978 and began basic training at Glencorse Barracks near Penicuik, Midlothian, but was medically discharged after five weeks due to a foot injury. He later worked in Edinburgh, Scotland and Manchester, NW England as a security guard while studying for a diploma in journalism by correspondence. In 1982 Gibbons moved to Romford, a town in Essex, where he quietly enlisted in a local Territorial Army (reservist) corps using his mother's maiden name. His service was progressing smoothly until his previous medical discharge papers came to light during a background check at the Ministry of Defence in London. He was again discharged in 1984, albeit with some sympathy from his commanding officer, who unsuccessfully appealed to the Ministry of Defence on Gibbons' behalf.

EDUCATION

Gibbons moved to London, where he found cheap lodgings in Forest Gate, E7, a residential district in the London Borough of Newham. He worked for Regent Security Services Ltd, a company based in Hornchurch, Essex, covering various commercial and corporate locations in and around the city while pursuing his studies. By October 1985 he had received four diplomas from the Trans-World Education College based in Jersey, Channel Islands: These were Journalism & Professional Writing, Business Management & Administration, Sales Management & Marketing, and Safety & Security Management. His academic success and dedication to his employment later earned him promotion to the rank of sergeant. Between 1988 to 1994, Gibbons completed two degrees by distance learning with the Immanuel Baptist College & Seminary, located in Atlanta, Georgia USA. These were a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, both in Religious Education. It was Gibbons' hope to pursue a career in Christian media and broadcasting. In 1995 Gibbons earned a diploma in Radio & Television Broadcasting with the National Institute of Broadcasting in Toronto.

CONGO EXPEDITIONS

In 1985 Gibbons left his employment and the long hours it involved to join a four-man private expedition to the Congo Republic, led by the English explorer, Mark Rothermel, a biology student at Kings College, London. From November 1985 to March 1986, Gibbons, Rothermel, Joe Della-Porta, an Army sergeant, and Jonathan Walls, a history teacher and French translator, explored the Likouala auxe-Herbes River in the Likouala Region of the Peoples Republic of the Congo, including a hazardous five day trek through dense forest to camp at a remote lake (Lac Tele) to collect insects and fish, and seek out unverified wildlife. During this time the team was based at a mission station near the town of Impfondo, where Gibbons experienced a religious awakening. He was baptized in the Oubangui River by Pastor Mowawa Eugene, a local minister. The four team members all contracted various illnesses, including malaria and dysentery, but were nursed back to health by Pastor Eugene P. Thomas (1928 - 2005) and his wife Sandy (1932 - 2015), the resident missionaries of the area at that time. Gibbons later visited the Congo again in October 1992, delivering medical supplies to the mission station with Elizabeth Addy, an Optician from Ilkley, Yorkshire. She and Gibbons travelled up the remote Bai River system with a medical team visiting several villages along the way. This caught the attention of the media and Gibbons became a frequent guest on several BBC radio broadcasts and appeared in several documentaries relating to crypoozoology (the study of hidden or unknown animals).

MARRIAGE

In November 1986, Gibbons met his future wife, Fee Chin Koo Kim Shiong, a Sino-Mauritian national who was undergoing her nursing training at South Ockendon Mental Hospital in the Thurrock Borough of Essex. Gibbons returned to work for Regent Security Services Ltd as a sergeant, training and supervising uniformed guards on new sites in London and the Home counties. He was later promoted to the rank of inspector and was provided with a company vehicle to visit various sites in a management capacity, ensuring that guards were trained sufficiently in company procedures and liaising with clients. The couple were married on July 23rd, 1988 at Gillingham Baptist Church in the Medway Towns, Kent, where they purchased their first home. Fee Chin completed her nursing training at the Medway Hospital in 1989. Later, the couple worked for the Medway Community Living Service as residential social workers, teaching basic educational and home making skills to mentally handicapped adults. Their first child, Matthew James Gibbons, was born in October 1991. In July 1993, Gibbons appeared in the Channel 4 documentary, Claws, Jaws and Dinosaurs, which featured some of his video footage shot in the Congo.

CANADA

In March 1994, the Gibbons' emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the urging of Fee Chin's family members who had successfully established themselves in the country. After only nine days in the country he found employment in the security industry and his wife returned to nursing. One month after landing in the country, their second child, Andrew David Gibbons, was born at the Scarborough General Hospital in May. Although Gibbons was impressed by the high professional standards of Canadian security agencies, he left the business after several run-ins with criminals who carried guns and knives. Private citizens in Canada are prohibited from carrying any kind of weapon for self-defence. Only armoured car guards are permitted to carry side arms to protect valuables and money, with a limited number of "regular" security guards who are armed to protect banks and jewelry stores. With Toronto becoming more expensive and crowded with increasing gun crime, The family purchased a home in the Town of Pickering, in the region of Durham where they remained 1998 to 2002. Gibbons worked as a Account Executive for an American manufacturing firm, while Fee continued her nursing career as an RN in Ajax-Pickering Hospital. Later that year the Gibbons family moved to Calgary, Alberta, to be closer to three of Fee Chin's siblings. William, Fee Chin and Matthew became Canadian citizens in April 2000.

BOOKS, LECTURES & MEDIA INTERVIEWS

As a side career, Gibbons wrote three books between 1999 to 2010, mainly on cryptozoology. They were, Claws, Jaws & Dinosaurs, Missionaries and Monsters, and Mokele-mbembe, Mystery Beast of the Congo Basin''. The latter two were published by Coachwhip Publications located in Greenville, Ohio. He appeared on several television chat shows on Canadian television and had a regular ten minute spot on Richard Syrett's Conspiracy Show for two years on AM 740, every Thursday evening. The show was broadcast out of Toronto, and Syrett later commented that Gibbons' slot was the most popular with listeners. He was also invited to several cryptozoology conferences in the USA, including giving dinosaur and "monster" talks in several venues in Canada. On August 13th, 2016, he was the special guest on the immensely popular radio show, Coast to Coast AM. He has also taught courses at Canada Christian College in Toronto, and Victory Bible College in Calgary, comparing creationism & intelligent design to evolution.

FURTHER EXPEDITIONS

Gibbons conducted five more expeditions to southern Cameroon with various film crews, mainly sponsored by the BBC, A&E and the History Channel. These were in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2012. He has also appeared in the History Channel's Monster Quest series twice. He also investigated alleged living Dodo reports in Mauritius in 1997 and 2019, but concluded that the eye-witnesses probably observed a giant Petrel, a large brown sea bird with a distinctive Dodo-like hooked beak.

FINAL CAREER

In 2004, Gibbons established his own security agency, Regent Protection Services Ltd. It was an industry he knew well, and the demand for radio and television guest slots, including travelling overseas would be better facilitated if he was self-employed. By 2016, the company was employing 125 security guards, with four patrol vehicles on the road around the clock. By 2018, the company had attracted the attention potential buyers including Daniel Tung, a property manager with a large property management company based in from Calgary. Gibbons decided on a final career in the world of online documentaries and sold Regent to Tung.

Although both William and Fee Chin officially retired in 2018, William now writes, edits and narrates documentaries on a variety of popular subject in a home studio for two film production companies: one in the USA and the other in the United Kingdom. ''   1