Gillingham Football Club is an English association football club originally formed in 1893 and known until 1913 as New Brompton F.C. The first man to hold a role equivalent to what is today referred to as a manager was William Ironside Groombridge, who was appointed as club secretary in June 1896 and quickly expanded the role to cover all aspects of team and club administration. Apart from two two-year spells when the club opted to appoint a full-time team manager to allow Groombridge to concentrate solely on club administration, he fulfilled the dual roles of secretary and manager until after the First World War. Upon being admitted to the Football League in May 1920, the club appointed Robert Brown as manager, but he resigned without ever taking charge of a match. He was replaced by Scotsman John McMillan, the club's first non-English manager.
The next significant manager of Gillingham was Archie Clark, under whose management the club returned to the Football League in 1950, having been voted out in 1938. Freddie Cox was the first manager to win a major trophy with Gillingham, taking the Football League Fourth Division championship in the 1963–64 season. Under his successor, Basil Hayward, the club was relegated back to the Fourth Division in the 1970–71 season, but Andy Nelson led the club to promotion back to Division Three three years later. After the Gills were relegated once again in the 1988–89 season, Tony Pulis managed the club to promotion seven years later. Pulis also took the team to the final of the play-offs for promotion to the second tier of English football in the 1998–99 season. Pulis was sacked immediately after this for gross misconduct, but his successor, Peter Taylor, took the club back to the play-off final the following season, in which victory over Wigan Athletic saw the club promoted to Division One for the first time in its history. Peter Taylor left to join Leicester during the close season and club captain Andy Hessenthaler took over as manager for the club's first, and to date only, stint in the second tier.
After Hessenthaler was dismissed following a poor start to the 2004–05 season, the club saw a number of managers come and go in a relatively short time before Mark Stimson's arrival in 2007. His two and a half-year tenure saw the club promoted back to the third tier via the play-offs, but he was dismissed the following season. Hessenthaler then returned to the club for a period of two years before he was promoted to Director of Football to make way for Martin Allen. Allen became only the second manager to win a trophy with the club, leading the team to the League Two championship in 2013, but he was dismissed a few months into the following season after a poor start, following which another former manager, Peter Taylor, returned to the club.
Managers Statistics are correct up to 21 August 2026 and include all senior competitive peacetime first-team matches. Minor county competitions such as the Kent Senior Cup and Kent Senior Shield are not included as the club rarely, if ever, fielded its first team.
NameNationalityFromToPWDLWin%HonoursNotes (secretary)1897June 1897Elligate, p.100Late November 1906Bradley, Triggs, p.42Brown, pp.14–231906Late November 1906Summer 1908Brown, pp.24–25 (secretary)1908Summer 1908Summer 1913Brown, p.26–301913July 1913Bradley, Triggs, p.57Summer 1915Brown, pp.31–32191928 July 1919Elligate, p.11712 May 1920Brown, p.331920 (1)12 May 1920Elligate, p.1049 June 19201920 (2)2 July 1920Elligate, p.1113 August 1922Elligate, p.120Brown, pp.34–35 (secretary)19223 August 192210 May 1923Elligate, p.103Brown, p.36192310 May 1923Elligate, p.8430 March 1926Brown, pp.37–39unknown caretaker1926 (1)30 March 192612 April 1926Elligate, p.55Brown, p.391926 (2)12 April 1926Elligate, p.6229 March 1929Brown, pp.40–42unknown caretaker1929 (1)29 March 19297 May 1929Elligate, p.82Brown, p.421929 (2)7 May 192929 December 1931Elligate, p.203Brown, pp.43–45unknown caretaker193129 December 193118 January 1932Elligate, p.82193219 January 1932Elligate, p.2125 May 1937Elligate, p.94Brown, pp.45–50193726 May 193716 June 1938Brown, p.51193811 July 193819 July 1939Elligate, p.115Brown, p.5219392 August 193923 November 1957Elligate, p.180Southern League champions 1946–47 and 1948–49,Southern League Cup winners 1946–47,Kent League champions 1945–46Brown, pp.53–67195823 November 19574 May 1962Elligate, p.78Brown, pp.67–71196213 June 1962Elligate, p.10517 December 1965Elligate, p.195Fourth Division champions 1963–64Brown, pp.72–75 (caretaker)196517 December 19654 January 1966Brown, pp.7519664 January 1966Elligate, p.1125 May 1971Brown, pp.75–80197124 June 1971Elligate, p.1073 May 1974Elligate, p.77Brown, pp.80–8319746 May 1974Elligate, p.8115 October 1975Brown, pp.84–85 (caretaker)1975 (1)15 October 1975Elligate, p.16027 October 1975Elligate, p.165Brown, p.851975 (2)27 October 197522 May 1981Elligate, p.92Brown, pp.85–90198114 July 1981Elligate, p.11429 December 1987Brown, pp.91–97198729 December 198726 October 1988Brown, pp.97–98Damien Richardson (caretakers)198826 October 198831 October 1988198831 October 198811 April 1989Brown, p.98 (caretaker)1989 (2)11 April 198918 April 19891989 (3)18 April 19898 October 1992Elligate, p.155Brown, pp.98–102 (caretaker)1992 (1)8 October 199226 October 1992Brown, p.1021992 (2)26 October 19929 July 1993199312 July 199328 February 1995Brown, pp.103–104 (caretaker)1995 (1)28 FebruaryElligate, p.43May 1995Brown, pp.1041995 (2)29 June 1995Elligate, p.10930 June 1999Elligate, p.110Brown, pp.105–10819997 July 1999Elligate, p.11212 June 2000Second Division play-off winners 1999–2000Brown, p.109200029 June 2000Elligate, p.10923 November 2004Elligate, p.181 (caretaker)2004 (1)23 November 200430 November 2004(caretakers)2004 (2)4 December 20047 December 20042004 (3)7 December 200415 May 20052005 (1)21 May 200515 November 20052005 (2)15 November 20059 September 2007 (caretakers)2007 (1)9 September 20078 October 2007 (caretaker)2007 (2)8 October 20071 November 20072007 (3)1 November 200710 May 20102009 Football League Two play-off final winners 2010 (3)21 May 2010 8 May 2012 20125 July 2012 13 October 2013Football League Two champions 2012–13201314 October 201331 December 2014<br/ > (caretakers)201431 December 20147 February 201520157 February 20153 January 201720174 January 201725 September 2017 (caretaker)201725 September 201712 October 2017 201712 October 201726 April 2019 (caretaker) 201926 April 20194 May 201920191 June 20199 January 2022 (caretaker)202210 January 2022 31 January 2022202231 January 20225 October 2023 (caretaker)20235 October 20231 November 202320231 November 202329 April 202420247 May 20245 January 20252025 (1)5 January 202525 March 20252025 (2)25 March 2025Present
Notes a. Drawn matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws. b. Win% is rounded to two decimal places. c. Competitive football was abandoned after the 1914–15 season due to the escalation of the First World War and did not resume until 1919. Gilligan did not return to the club after the war. d. Clark's statistics include three matches (two wins and one defeat) played at the start of the 1939–40 season before competitive football was abandoned due to the outbreak of the Second World War. e. Soccerbase erroneously includes the final two games of the 2018–19 season in Lovell's statistics even though he was dismissed on 26 April 2019. f. Soccerbase erroneously includes the six games between the dismissal of Harris and the appointment of Clemence in the former's total.
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