One man who never played it by the book
A book is being written about the life of an infamous drunken rogue.
Not many folk who were not police or justiciary would recognise the name Reggie Gibson.
But show them a picture – and his face was instantly recognisable.
For the streets of Ayr were the domain of Reginald Burns Gibson.
The wild superlager- loving rover was powerful in stature, a ginger – and a favourite spot of his was the old cross on the Newton side of the New Bridge.
This happened to be right beside the main traffic route into Ayr – so everyone noticed him and his band of vagabonds.
During his career as a menace, he chalked up 140 convictions – and was once charged with “aggresively jumping in puddles”.
He was often banned from the town centre, regularly thrown out of pubs, refused to leave pubs and was a serial nuisance to people and police – most of the time as drunk as a skunk.
Finally he managed to get off the demon drink - helped by the then Ayr Sheriff, Lord McEwan.
Sheriff Robin McEwan wagered Reggie £ 1 he couldn’t abstain until Christmas. But he did – and the sheriff paid up.
Now a Tasmanian gent who befriended him – when almost everyone else turned the other cheek – is writing a book about Reggie’s torrid times.
United Nations Transatlantic Christian Council chief Peter Smith, 68, first came across wild Reggie at Ayr Fishermans Mission in 1986.
Reggie died a year ago, two days short of his 70th birthday. He spent more than 20 years of these years living rough.
He survived being thrown in the harbour by a rival and once ended up with glass stuck in his arm after smashing his caravan window.
During a decade working on Ayr fishing boats, he slept in the fish market under a tarpaulin.
And Peter said: “How he got to nearly 70 and not die violently I’ll never know. But I promised him I would write a book about his life and that is what I am doing.”
He’s hoping to get extra information from Ayrshire Life readers to fill in a few gaps. In particular, information about a photograph from 1955 of Reggie’s class at Holmston Primary.
Peter, who now lives in Prestwick, said: “I’d love to find out the names of everyone in the class so I can publish them in the book.
“And of anyone has stories, good or bad, about Reggie, then I’d love to hear them.”
Publication of “Reggie” is planned for later in the year.
Reggie even had the rare distinction of being banned from the Gaiety Theatre – he’d sneak up to the serving hatch in the cafe and grab the ladle and help himself to soup.
Often he tried to say he could not serve time because there was nobody to look after his series of beloved dogs.
Once when he asked for various offences to be taken into account together before being sentenced , he asked Sheriff Neil Gow QC: “What’s going to happen to the dog?”
Sheriff Gow replied: “Don’t worry about the dog. He’ll get bail.”
Engineer Peter, a committed Christian and father- of- two, describes Reggie as his “best friend in Scotland”.
He settled in Prestwick with his physio wife Frances in 1986, meeting Reggie around ‘ 89.
Peter said: “I saw this dishevelled individual, barely human.
“I was told to stay out of his way, but I told him the Lord had sent me all the way from Tasmania to come and talk to him.
“His reply was that he hoped the Lord could give him money for a drink.”
The pair grew fond of each other and Peter was one of the few, if not the only one he would open up to.
Reggie had a dirt- poor upbringing. His father left when he was just four and his mother died when he was 17.
Peter said: “He was an amazing chap when sober but on the drink he was an absolute menace. I tried to get him on the straight and narrow but it was adifficult job. But for the last 13 years of his life he was off the drink and a lot of folk looked out for him.
“And I have a letter from Sheriff McEwan after I got in touch. He said Reggie was more sinned against than sinning.”
One time when he tried to stop drinking, he broke into the Ailsa Hospital and was only discovered when there was an extra person come the head count.
Come the end, it was Peter who found Reggie’s body in the bedroom of his newbuild council house in Whitletts.
But Peter asks: “If anyone had had Reggie’s life, would they have been any better?”
For names of Holmston pupils or anecdotes about Reggie, contact Peter at petercsmith@ hotmail. com or 07801 306011
How Reggie got to nearly 70 and not die violently I’ll never know