Red Dead Redemption 2 Gavin Location - Where to find lost English Man
Gavin is a character from Red Dead Redemption 2. You’ll first hear about him in the streets of one of the game’s major cities, where you’ll find his worried friend shouting his name. After you talk to the friend, he’ll tell you Gavin has disappeared and give you a vague description. At this point, you can either drop the whole thing or go looking for Gavin. A lot of people are upset about this and really want to find the missing Englishman. This guide is going to help you solve Red Dead Redemption 2 Gavin mystery.
UPDATE: A full year has passed since we first tried to solve this mystery. The answer still eludes us, but there have been some interesting ideas floating around the community. Our new favorite is the one proposing that Gavin is actually just a figment of Nigel’s imagination. Hopefully, with the release of the PC version, someone is going to poke around the game’s data and figure out whether Gavin exists – at least in the game, if not the lore.
Where to find Gavin’s friend
The quest giver, known as Gavin’s friend, can appear in different places randomly. You can meet him in Rhodes, Saint Denis, Blackwater, the forests of Roanoke and MacFarlane’s Ranch. You’ll recognize him easily, either by the dapper outfit with a boater hat, or by his incessant shouting of Gavin’s name. Once you talk to him, he’ll tell you that Gavin’s English, lovely and missing. That’s not much to go on, but at least we know he’s supposed to speak with an accent that isn’t American.
Where to find Gavin in RDR2?
There are a lot of theories – some make sense, others are pure garbage – but they’re all just theories. Nobody has been able to find Gavin and provide proof of his location and existence.
One of the most popular theories is that Gavin is the boy locked in the Rhodes gunsmith’s basement – this would be quaint, especially if you’ve met the concerned friend in Rhodes. However, the guy chained to the bed under the gun shop is decidedly non-English. Some mentioned finding him in a mine near Strawberry, kidnapped by the O’Driscolls, but that’s one of those that are pure garbage.
In the end, we killed Gavin’s friend and found a letter on his corpse. Reading it explained that the man’s name is Nigel, and he’s corresponding with someone named Tom, from back in the UK. Apparently, Nigel is telling everyone back home that they’ve become successful cowboys, millionaires. But obviously this isn’t true. Our conclusion is that you can’t find Gavin because he’s not in the game. You can find out more about our conclusion in the last chapter, but we have to warn you about spoilers.
—– Spoilers ahead ———-
Once you finish the game, after the Epilogue, you will come across Nigel, 10 years older, looking like a crazy man, wandering the streets and still asking for his friend Gavin. Also, we didn’t see a voice actor for Gavin in the credits. Maybe Gavin decided to go back to UK. Maybe, he just ran away from Nigel. We don’t know, but we think he’s not in the game.
If you end up getting stuck at another point, you might want to check out some of the other guides we have. We've written about mysteries like the missing person Gavin, the Rhodes Gunsmith prisoner, the locked door at Valentine doctor. We also have instructional guides that show how to rob stores without getting bounty or where to sell jewelry and gold bars. If it's collectibles or key items you're after, we've found all the Penny Dreadful comic books, Chick's treasure map location, or that famous pipe for Dutch. Finally, if you don't care to explore the map yourself, you could take a look at our Watson's Cabin and Catfish Jackson's Homestead locations guides. In the latest Red Dead Online Moonshiners Update you'll have a chance to find Navy Revolver and Best Shack Locations.
Gavin can be found in the Blackwater saloon if Nigel is in town looking for him. There is no interraction with him.
Maybe…just maybe…Gavin is the friends we made along the way.
read the letter he has and you will realise he is Gavin, he has a split personality, Gavin used to materialize sometimes, but now he has stopped and this poor guy does not understand why and is searching for him.
so i don’t think gavin is real or maybe is just gone and went back to the uk or maybe even dead but i talked gavin’s friend a couple of times (nigel as people are saying) and once in saint denis he said that gavin left him…years ago. so good chance he’s dead or really missing or not even real.
I found Gavin’s friend in Sain Denis, south of the theater and the police office. He said still looking for his friend, but he doesn’t remember what he looks like. He also said he wasted his life looking for Gavin.
After reading all the other comments under this, I’ve come to a theory, a possible belief myself. Nigel is Gavin. He quite possibly has DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) which causes you to think that you’re two different people, as well as it leaves gaps in memory, showing why he keeps asking ‘Where is Gavin?’ This is only just a thought, but I believe very strongly in this.
When I came across Nigel in Rhodes the first time, the theory that I first came to was that “Gavin” was one of the victims of the mystery serial killer whose victims you’ll come across here and there. I had just found the victim south of Rhodes while looking for the homestead at Catfish Jacksons you can rob (you get a tip from an escaped convict if you shoot their shackles), so it seemed related to me when I first came across Nigel. Since then I think the best theory is that Gavin is not a real person, he is Nigel’s other personality, but either way I don’t think it’s possible to help Nigel.
I heard a theory that Gavin is an intern and they put him in the game as a joke because they could never find him
(SPOILER) Did you guys ever think that Gavin was the man killed by Edward Lowrey Jr near Braithwaite Manor?
ive been trying to figure out the whole Gaven mystery and though i have no way to back up my theory i kinda feel he may be the wild naked guy that you can track back to the wolf den but not positive
My theory, gavin is a lost man, looks like a werewolf near by river !!
I reckon it’s just a touch of realism about the brutal vastness of the world and how people could just get split up when traveling back then and this guy went mad trying to find him again, maybe some kind of responsibility to not go home without him drove him mad, meant to be looking out for him or the trip was his idea or something
Perhaps the Tom in Nigel’s letter is Tom Sinclair, the father of Francis Sinclair (the time traveler). If that’s the case, Gavin may be from a different time.
I think Gavin and Nigel were lovers. I don’t know if Gavin abandoned him and was actually Trelawny (which is a theory I love) or if something sinister happened to him. Maybe he wandered to a certain cabin or two. Either way Nigel is waaaay too desperate for it not to be lost love. The letter even says people were saying funny things about him back home and that Gavin’s mother clearly didn’t favor him. I feel bad for Nigel. I want to help him so bad.
I’m looking for Gavin…he’s my best friend.
Has anyone considered the body parts of a man inside the house a little ways from Van horn trading post ? To the left of the train tracks ?
I have no idea what the truth is, but I am very curious, and I find it really fun to see all the theories and even try to test some of them out. I’d love to know the truth behind Gavin, maybe by seeing him in RDR3, but honestly I’d also be fine with never knowing, and simply theorizing, cause it really is quite an entertaining mystery.
Is it possible that Gavin was one of the victims of the serial killer? This could tie in as you find one of the victims in the Lamoine area. Maybe that’s Gavin…..
This is clearly just a joke by the RDR team! No mystery.
It is a pretty well-known meme in the UK that wherever you go in the world there will always be a drunk/hungover englishman somewhere wandering about forlornly shouting the name of their lost friend.
In Glastonbury years ago someone was wandering around the campsite shouting out “Dave!? Dave? Anyone know where Dave is?” for a while and eventually everyone within about a mile of him had joined in shouting out for “Dave”. It doesn’t matter if he found him or not. It’s part of noughties folklore now…..I’ve no doubt that’s what the Gavin thing is all about.
Arthur is gavin but when John finds nigel
Nigel’s most likely schizophrenic; Gavin may not even be real.
Nigel says “he left me” and then corrects to say that he lost him. I’m thinking they were more than friends, got into a fight and Gavin took off, leaving Nigel looking for him but going far enough away that he’d never be found.
Gavin was one of the men killed by the serial killer.
I think Gavin is one of Trelawney’s aliases
Maybe Gavin is the ghost stranger from Red Dead Redemption 1?
Really…. try to bring him to the “found” dag in camp… or the other way around. Or call the dog Gavin. ?
Either Nigel is Gavin, Trelawny is Gavin (it’s possible since he’s always gone doing who knows what), Gavin will be in a DLC or a running joke around the studio of Rockstar where an employee named Gavin shows up late or is never around when he’s needed. Gavin from Rockstar would make a lot of sense tbh and is HIGHLY possible. If not, then I honestly believe Nigel just has a personality disorder or some mental illness where Gavin was his imaginary friend that disappeared. Also, the person in the letter that knew him and Gavin is probably his shrink. Mental illness was ignored and thought as “not normal” so that would make sense too. So it’s either mental illness or a Rockstar inside joke.
I’m pretty sure this is actually a nod to Gavin Free from achievement hunter. Since jack pattillo and Geoff Ramsey from achievement hunter are also in the game as voice actors, it wouldn’t be afar stretch and in real life Gavin is an English fellow and kinda spacey.. him getting lost wouldn’t be a stretch.
Gavin is no speak thats why he isn’t on credit, we know from letter that Gavin was always a type of silence. So we need to think who also no speaking. But, anyway how to find nigel when you with gavin and that f#$%er is walking around all map? 🙂
This one dude is in St Denis, Gavin is in Blackwater. I didn’t shoot anyone but trying to lasso one or the other ends up in a gunfight. I don’t know how to unite these two but they are both easily available
I think gavin may potentially be somewhere in rdr 1, or someone we meet in rdr3(I’ve heard rumors about rdr3)
U dont have to kill Gav´s friend. U can only tie him and rob him.
I shot him in the fucking .face with a sawed off and obliterated half hks face and he Spawned back in an fifteen minutes later. So yes you can kill him he just won’t stay dead.
I always thought it was a stab at Gavin Free from Rooster Teeth. Both Jack Patillon and Geoff Ramsey got to be in the game as voice actors, but Gavin did not. All 3 are die hard RDR fans. I always assumed it was a playful jab at him?
Maybe Gavin got lost in Westworld being a millionaire cowboy.
What about the crazy English guy in the tree house in Austin?
IF there is a Gavin, he must not have a speaking part. I don’t see a Gavin in the closing credits, only “Gavin’s Friend” is listed Nigel I believe.
Theres a dead dude i came across the other day that is dressed the same as nigel. Didn’t think of picking him up,,. But my idea is to bring a corpse to nigel and see if he’ll respond to it… its on the bottom of my to do list but whatevs… i just got this game like a week ago soooo… im a little late to the party
i doubt they would put a extremely difficult secret in the credits
Maybe you’re not supposed to find Gavin at all.
An Englishman travels across the sea in delusional hopes of becoming a rich and successful cowboy, a dream that very obviously never pans out. If you meet Gavin’s friend in Blackwater, [NAME REDACTED] will ask Gavin’s friend what Gavin looks like, and he’ll reply something to the effect of “I actually don’t know what he looks like.” This is similar to how Dutch’s own increasingly crazy ambitions makes other characters believe Dutch doesn’t know what he wants, other than maybe chaos (effectively living life like a crazy cowboy).
Gavin’s friend is an allegory for the philosophical themes of the advancement of civilization, the decline of the wild west, and the slow but ever-increasing caging of the human spirit. Gavin’s friend being an englishman represents how colonists and immigrants came to America to pursue the American dream. The rapid advancement of civilization and technology represents the decline of that dream, or perhaps the revelation that it was never there at all. Gavin’s friend is nothing more than a plot device, literally a walking metaphor.
Isn’t the mayor of Strawberry an englishman called Gavin? I remember helping a man get to the town and he advised me to look into the mayor “Gavin” in that place.
Weirdly, before googling and reading about it, I was in St Denis and heard someone shouting for “Tom!”, saying that he couldn’t find his friend. I had forgotten that the main guy is called Nigel and spent ages to track down the random voice I heard, to no avail. When I read fan theories, I was reminded that the guy is called Nigel, so I thought it wasn’t linked, but then I learned that he has a letter which references “Tom”. Is it a coincidence that I have found someone that is looking for Tom? Is it possible that Tom, upon hearing about the successes of his friends in America, was meant to arrive in St Denis and meet up with Nigel and Gavin, and now that all three are searching for one another? Anyone else heard this guy looking for Tom? Could it be Gavin…and I lost him! 🙁
Personally, I think Gavin has been abducted by aliens. There are loads of alien related easter-eggs found in the game (actual ufo’s amongst them). It’s possible that Gavin is connected to a “Cowboys vs. Alien DLC”,the original Red Dead Redemption also released the Cowboy vs. Zombie DLC, “Undead Nightmare”.
I found Gavin, or he found me actually. Durring the second bank heist before we walked within a Few feet of the doors, I hear a fimiliar voice yelling. At first I thought it was the AL too familiar friend of Gavin, but I knew I had killed him earlier and thought it was a random respawn. I went to talk to him when I noticed his name was Gavin and he asked if I had seen his friend ??
Screen shot? No? Ok just like the other 15 people in these comments that have a completely different account of finding him but havent provided a shred of evidence.
Hmmm ok well I remember once I was hunting the legendary bison when I encountered a British guy who came running through the woods yelling about being attacked by a “ weird animal with plague in its eyes “ ( his words) but before I could examine him further he runs off and if you try to fallow him he pulls the ye old Houdini and vanishes
Maybe er get to meet Gavin in RDR3?
Red Dead Redemption 2 is RDR 3. Because Red Dead Revolver exists.
Actually no a new rdr would be rdr3 because it is red dead redemption not red dead revolver
I found him again, this time by Evelyn Miller Camp. Said to me he’s been finding him for 7-8 years already. Think we got a lead?
I was watching a YouTube video that has a theory that Nigel killed Gavin. To be honest I think that’s the most likely theory. Explains him going crazy!
My theory is that someone please buy me this so I can actually play it
I found an Englishmen’s hanging corpse, used as a trap by some hillbillies to bait you, just North of annesburg. It popped up as i followed the path from annesburg to manito glade, as an X on my map. Might be him m
I found Gavin!!! He’s at the location of [REDACTED]. Just head past Tumbleweed and you’ll find a [REDACTED] and he’s there. Speak to him and all will be revealed.
No you never.
Why were some parts of that redacted?
I found Gavin by the swamps of saint Denis rotten away. I swear on my son’s life I found this dudes body, I’ve been scrounging for days to see if it was just a fluke, but I’ve seen people mention finding Gavin in a cave or somethinf, but here’s the Fucking crazy part. It said “Gavin” when j found the corpse, gave me only one option to pick it up, so I thought aye, I ought go bring him his mate back, rather than never knowing what happens to your best friend, soo anyways, i call my horse over put Gavin on my horses back, lost a bunch of honor points and my horse took off, I just dropped 1000$ on that Arabia shit so I reloaded my last save in a brief panic and Gavin body’s gone. Idk man. I’m. Not trying to sell tales man, but my horse took off and I lost karma, so maybe a side quest…?
No you never.
Where abouts in saint denis? I’ve been wandering the swamps for hours and can’t find any dead bodies
Man! you know what im sure i found this same guy and thinking iv got to take him to his friend but i crocodile spooked my horse and it killed me…i forgot about it and it was only reading these comments that it jogged my memory, the bit about not being able to loot him i remember specifically made me think we found the same guy! I was tottally leaning towards split personality aswell
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Yet everyone that claims to have “found Gavin” has yet to produce a screen shot.
In this very comment section multiple people claimed to find him, all different results. You found him dead in St. Denis another guy found him alive and you bring Nigel to him. No one can seem to provide a shred of evidence other than their word.
I’ve seen other comments saying that they found a dead body similar to what you found at other locations, mabye there are multiple spawn locations for the body around the map?
The whole thing is pretty clearly a gag. The punchline is that you find Gavin’s friend in Blackwater during the Epilogue, years after the events of the main story. He’s wearing the same clothes, but worn and full of holes, his hair is a mess and he’s got dark bags under his eyes, and he’s still looking for Gavin. “I’ve been looking for him for years. I don’t even remember what he looks like. I’ve wasted my life,” he explains, before resuming his frenzied search for Gavin.
It seems like it’s just a joke on the idea of the helpless quest-giving NPC. The player doesn’t resolve his story (in this case, because the player cannot resolve his story) and so Nigel is just trapped in limbo, forever searching for his friend Gavin, with no life whatsoever outside of this single problem.
But of course, videogame fandom has a higher-than-average percentage of folks with various brain conditions that force them to take everything literally, so I am sure there will be people who continue to formulate theories about the identity of Gavin with the same zeal others apply to real-life mysteries.
Lol right? Gamers r so dum! I mean – it’s not like rockstar games are notorious for inserting Easter eggs or incredibly difficult to solve mysteries into their games to generate and maintain interest or anything.
Oh wait they totally DO insert Easter eggs and incredibly difficult to solve mysteries. The Mt Chiliad mystery in GTA 5 for example and the developers have said gamers still haven’t found all of the Easter eggs they inserted decades later in other games like San Andreas.
The letters mention ‘mistaken identity’ around Nigel so I’m sure we’re going to discover that another English character like the zoo guy is ACTUALLY Gavin in an upcoming DLC.
Anyway it’s probably because of the made up brain disorders you invented and general stupidity of gamers and totally not the expectation Rockstar has created by inserting countless mysteries just like this one into their games since they started developing them. Lol u r just the cleverest and smartest man ever.
Oof. Sean Maguire back at it again. I applaud you.
He is right though, Gamers are thick as pig shit.
if that is so then why are you on a VIDEO GAME website where GAMERS come to expres their theories of a DIFICULT GAME QUEST IF IT EVEN IS A QUEST
you are almost correct. this is nothing more than an easter egg that is a nod to Gavin Free. (SloMo Guys and Rooster Teeth) other production companies have added easter eggs that referenced him or something that he has done. Hit Man and Minecraft are 2 other games that come to mind that gives a slight nod to Rooster Teeth.
The lost man you lead to Strawberry is Gavin. He introduces himself as Gavin.
The drunk dude? Or the one that you find randomly on a trail?
“Varius brain conditions”? Really? That’s a willfully ignorant remark if I ever heard one.
My theory is that Nigel is Gavin. He has a split personality possibly and hes been slipping further into his second persona maybe? Hes mad once you reach the epilogue, so I think hes forgotten that he is gavin. The letters could have been written by him too maybe?
Idk but I feel I met Gavin, really early on in the game near strawberry a random British dude came out of the brush saying he was lost, I remember that he was in fact British but i don’t remember what he said, I do remember accidentally hitting a tree trying to take him to strawberry thus making him run away from me. Every single time I see his friend I always wonder if that in fact was Gavin:( Rip gavin
No I‘m pretty sure I know wich guy you mean… is met him outside of strawberry early in the game as well. But he tells you that he‘s a New York Guy while you guide him back to strawberry
Gavins friend said he was living in/near new york and gavin dissapeared one day
Gavin’s the cave devil of 8 years no way around it
Bingo !!! You got that right bruh.
I think he’s probably a 2 personalities and Tom is either a psychologist or just trying to help him. Don’t know if there’s a psychologist at that time.
Psychology was a field of science at this time; maybe only a couple of decades old, but it was a thing. And I agree wholeheartedly
All the theories are good Gavin also could be the tree king or hermit/
Gavin and Nigel are two different people. Tom is a third, if you read the letter to Gavin he talks about Nigel’s mother after his father died then Gavin’s mother and how she knew he would see reason in Gavin and Nigel’s fool quest to become cowboy millionaires. Tom also says that Gavin didn’t mention any of the lies that Nigel had written to him, which leads me to believe they were not together when each of them wrote a letter to Tom. I believe Gavin got tired of Nigel‘s behavior and is on his way back home.
Did anyone else see the body hanging under the bridge along with “Look Upon My Works” written on the cliffside in blood (I found in early-mid game while still playing as Arthur)? My theory is that the mad preacher that stands in the river killed him.
There is a clue near by that leads you to find two other clues. There are three locations like this in total. It is a mystery that you have to solve.
On one of the support beams near the body there’s a head with a note in it’s mouth. There’s a couple other clues to be found but that body does have it’s own story to be discovered! Though I don’t doubt the search for Gavin would end in a similar discovery…
There’s a quest for this, search around the body youll find a paper, if you find two more bodies dead and mutilated like this, you’ll get to piece together 3 scraps to make a map to find the murderer.
I actually just found another one with the words “Behold” written next to the corpse. It’s near catfish Jackson’s. I was there in the middle of the night.
no thats for a different mission involving a serial killer
good idea but no its a psycho killer who dismembers people and you have to find all the bodies and then you get maps and then you find his location and bring him in to police
No, the crazy preacher is not the ‘look upon my works’ murderer. Those murders are a separate quest by themselves where you do confront the psychopath later on.
It is not the mad preacher in the water my friend i can tell you that.
Nope that’s a three part murder mystery resulting in a character like hannibal lecter in a basement, you take him to the sherif in valentine and get a reward
yeah I saw that too
This???
Yeah. He’s really searching for himself. Nigel is Tom..and Tom is Galvin. 3 split personalities are
sharing the same body
You meet this again when playing as [REDACTED]. He is gone completely crazy by that time.
If actually listen what he says about Gavin you realize He is Gavin himself. 2 personalities.
The second time i meet him i thought it might be some kind of pet (like a dog) instead of a human, with the way he talked about Gavin.
But he can’t be Gavin because the letter is from someone who knew him and Gavin since childhood.
He could still be Gavin in this case. I don’t find it hard to believe that the person he is corresponding with via these
letters might be simply entertaining this man’s split personality disorder by going along with the existance of Gavin.
Oh here he is. Hey partner. You… Gavin? As I recalled, your friend is looking for you.
He’s found the hidden dialog
I had this EXACT experience near the lumberjacks in valentine area years ago. “You Gavin? I think your friends been looking for you”
There was a character that was supposed to be in the game. A “giant” man intented as a circus freak but he didn’t make it to the final game. His name is Gavin.
So I suppose developers put him to wander around looking for Gavin that never made it for the players to actually be found.
thank you, finally someone who agrees with me
Gavin is the cave hermit( the guy that says he is the devil) hogtied nigel and take him to the cave hermit.
My theory is he’s the hanged man that after spotting him up north near annesburg I believe, the murfrees ambush us. I shot the body down once and swear it said Englishman, not stranger when I went to loot the body.
No.
Yes . If you carry him , his name is gavin
i think gavin is a horse cause before i saw gavin’s friends i saw a dead horse outside rhodes and through out the story it was slowly decomposing and i also heard gavin’s friend say something about gavin’s fur
No. He said nothing about his fur. That’s stupid
He says “nobody’s seen HIDE nor HAIR of him” idk if that’s concrete or he’s just referring to his buddy in that way
“Hide nor hair” is a figure of speech.
If he was also Gavin, then the letter makes no sense. Tom knows both Nigel and Gavin. They’re separate people.
Nigel, Tom and Gavin are all the same person.
Gavin is the werewolf ?
Yo what theres a werewolf
Incorrect
If found this bloke all over the map Evan just bumped into him in the Elysian pool ?
Thank you all for your concern. Nigel tried to kiss me about a month ago after seeing Brokeback Mountain. It freaked me out, so I have been hiding out. I am now experiencing PTSD from this experience and refuse to come close to cowboys and ranchers. Please stop trying to find me, I dont want to be found. . Thank you, Gavin
Gavin!!! There you are!
So the first time I ever played through this game I happened across this man looking for Gavin. Then I thought nothing of it. I continued to play and happened across one of the randomly generated camps that pop up in the world. Mind you I play on Xbox One. There is a man there that you can talked to named Gavin. If you leave the camp after you talk to him and find Nigel, you can bring him to Gavin, and Gavin will start to say “Are you crazy? Why did you bring this crazy man to me, I ran away from him for a reason” and either shoots Nigel, or turns against both Nigel and Arthur with a gun. that may not be his correct words but it’s something along the lines of that. You may not believe me but it’s a very random thing that I have not been able to find throughout my second playthrough
I FOUND GAVIN IN THE WOODS NEAR STRAWBERRY NEXT TO THE PATH BETWEEN RHODES AND STRAWBERRY, or some over english, lovely man who lived in new york and got lost
Thank you Kind Sir!
*Runs at supersonic speeds there*
Yes he has a split personality but somehow loses his other half if that’s possible. There is no Gaaaaavin!!
There is, it’s the Hermit, or the fella that calls himself the Devil in the cave up near Little creek or Big Valley
That person that’s searching for Galvin really is galvin. Galvin is Tom’s split personality. There are letters.. but letters were written by nigel which is Tom himself (Nigel-AKA tom…- AKA Galvin) all he is really doing is searching or finding himself in order to be complete.
No, Gavin is the Hermit / Devil from the cave.
Thank you, I was thinking the same. But it was amnesia. Okay so it wasn’t a crazy thought.