James Rankin Gibb was born in Avoca and grew up on a farm in Wycheproof. He was born in 1873, the eldest child of James Rankin Gibb and his wife, Christina May Wedster, and was followed by five other children: John Gavin Gibb b. 1875; Mary Agmes Gibb, b. 1878; William McMinn Gibb, b. 1883; Elizabeth Grace Gibb, b. 1885 and Fanny Johnson Gibb, b. 1889. James Gibb's father died in 1899 and he appears to have taken on the responsibiltiy of looking after his mother, living with her for much of his adult life and naming her as his next of kin on his enlistment form. By 1916, when he enlisted, they were living at 160 Hotham St., East Melbourne, btu while she moved back to Wycheproof during the war, he returned to Hotham Street and wasl iving there in 1919. When he enlisted in 1916, James Gibb was 43 years old and working as a barber. He was to remain a barber or a hairdresser for his working life. 

It is difficult to trace his movements during the war. He enlisted on 6 September, 1916, and was attached to the 6th Battalion, 22nd Reinforcements on 20 October, 1916. With the other reinforcements troops, he embarked on HMAT Ulysses A38 on 25 October and landed at Plymouth, Engalnd, on 23 December, 1916. Then there is an immense blank in his records. There are three or so lines saying he crossed over to France and served there, but these are crossed out and the name of another Gibb is inserted. The next entry is for 29 May, 1917, when he was attached to the 2nd Trainign Battalion, marching in from Sutton Veny via Dover. On 25 April, 1918, he is attached to  the Pn. Training Battalion ex the 1st Training Battalion. On 1 December, he marched in to the Command Depot at Sutton Veny. Then, on 31/12/18, James Rankin was returned to Australia on the Saxon with a note attached sayign he was suffering from an injury ot the pelvis and was an invalid with Chronic Bronchitis. On 1 March, 1919, he was discharged from further service. he may have always had bronchitis and disguised it in order to serve in the army. More probably, he did go to France with the 6th Battalion, but caught it in the severe conditions. There is no medical report with any detail.

In the post-war years, he practised as a hairdresser in Melbourne, livign at 160 Hotham Street, East Melbourne, in 1919. After that, he moved down to the Morinington Peninsula, living at Bunyip, Flinders and working as a hairdresser, but after 1927, he disappears from the Electoral Rolls. His mother, Christina, died in 1983, but there is no entry in the Death Index for James Rankin Gibb.