A tribute from Douglas Miller
It was through joining England supporters’ tours to Australia and India that I first got to know Roger Gibbons, whose death on 13 February 2025 will be a cause of sadness to many members. Recruiting Roger as a member of the ACS was easy. A harder task was to persuade him that his accountancy qualifications perfectly suited him for the position of treasurer. In the view of David Kendix, my successor as chairman, this was my greatest contribution to the Association.
Roger took over at a time when our financial affairs were in dedicated but unqualified hands; we had little idea where we were heading until the accounts were audited. The minutes of a committee meeting in April 2007 recorded: ‘The [new] Treasurer said he would like to present figures differently, using accounting software, and asked what the committee might want to know.’ We were no longer just a group of cricket nuts sitting round the table; we were going to understand about managing a business – with budgets and other conventional tools.
Born in 1944, Roger was a Gloucestershire man through and through, living as a bachelor in his old parental home at Stroud. Cricket, and especially Gloucestershire cricket, was his all-consuming passion. Always modest about his literary talents, he was author of some superb booklets documenting aspects of the Club’s rich history. As a member of the GCCC Heritage Trust he played a key role in establishing on the county ground a fine museum and learning centre.
Roger served on the GCCC board and was from 2019 to 2022 the county’s President. When, as a life member of Gloucestershire, I have occasionally made the long journey to Bristol, I have been privileged to enjoy Roger’s unfailingly warm welcome and hospitality. Knowing I shall have no chance of meeting a dear friend again, any future journeys will seem longer.