Reverend John Brown Gribble worked as a missionary in Western Australia and Queensland. Gribble was a strong advocate against using Indigenous Australians as slave labour within the pastoral industry. Towards the end of his life, Gribble worked as a missionary at Yarrabah, Queensland. When he became ill, his son, Ernest Richard Bulmer Gribble (q.v.), joined him at Yarrabah. John Gribble died at the age of 45, while working on the fields at Yarrabah Mission.