The predecessor of Gillingham FC was a junior side called Chatham Excelsior Football Club. In 1893, a group of businessmen and some players held a meeting to discuss how they could push the club forward and the land that was to become the team’s current ground, Priestfield, was purchased.
The team finished top of the Second Division of the newly established Southern League in 1894-95 and were promoted, but they could not match that success in the years that followed and consistently finished low down the table up until the outbreak of the First World War.
The borough of Gillingham then grew at a rapid rate and the team was renamed Gillingham Football Club in 1912. The years that followed the Great War were less than spectacular for the side and in 1938 they finished bottom of the table and were voted out of the professional league in favour of Ipswich Town.
The team then became a big fish in a small pond, winning the Kent title in 1946 and the following season they were Southern League champions.
After five years of success in the Southern Cup, it was announced that the Third Division would be expanded and the Gills were unanimously voted back into the Football League.
Soon after being placed in the newly-formed Fourth Division, Gillingham won promotion to Division Three under manager Freddy Cox. They remained in that division from 1964 to 1970, but by the end of the 1980s they were back in the lowest division of the Football League.
By the mid 1990s Gillingham had come in and out of administration, but the arrival of manager Tony Pulis coincided with an upturn in fortunes and they won promotion to Division Two.
In the early 2000s, the club went through a string of different managers, but it was Andy Hessenthaler who guided the Gills to their highest ever league finish of 11th in the second tier.
The club are now back at League One level after winning the play-offs at Wembley in 2008/09, and are hoping to do well under the guidance of Mark Stimson.
