When Peter Heinrich Gerhard van Gilse was born in 1881, in Leer, Niedersachsen, Germany, his father, Alexander Gerard van Gilse, was 34 and his mother, Henriette Johanne Brouër, was 23. He married Julia van West on 30 June 1910, in Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. He died on 9 April 1959, in Haarlem, North Holland, Netherlands, at the age of 78.