Page 134 - Demo

134 A G Gibbons & SonsThere are many well known butchers names in Sunderland. One is Ibbotsons, which still continues to trade in Jacky White%u2019s market. Another is AG Gibbons & Sons, which long traded on High Street West in the building from where the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen now operates.Albert George Gibbons was born in Sunderland in 1895. Like many Wearsiders he went off to fight in the First World War. Despite being shot through his back into his stomach at the Somme and being gassed, Albert miraculously made it back to his hometown and went not into the butcher trade but down the pit at Glebe. Then a change of vocation came calling, and he set up his first shop in Coronation Street before later moving to nearby 70 High Street East.As well as being in the heart of the East End and its warren of streets and customers on the doorstep, the port also provided a lucrative source of income. Docking ships needed meat, and Albert was on hand to supply them.The family%u2019s mariner link strengthened when Albert%u2019s son, also called Albert George (as you did in those days) went to sea at the age of 15 in the late 1930s. Albert Gibbons Jnr. Credit: Gibbons Intl Albert Gibbons Snr. Credit: Gibbons Intl