Gerson (Gerszon) was born on 10 November 1900 in Belz, Poland. He moved to Frankfurt, Germany and met and married Rosa Schoenberg where they had three children Rosel, Edith and Max.

The family escaped Nazi Germany and in the 1939 Register, Gerson was living at the Kitchener Camp in Kent working as a laundry master and Rosa was working as a domestic servant in Edgware, London.

Gerson enlisted into the Pioneer Corps and was based at Catterick Camp when he died. He was an inpatient at the Military Hospital at Catterick when he died from a Coronary Thrombosis.