Newsletter - November 2018 There have been numerous changes and additions to the Gibbs Family Tree website at gibbsfamilytree.com since my previous newsletter in April, including the login password. Please see newsletter last section for details. This month is the centenary of Armistice Day, so this newsletter picture quiz lost his life amongst the trenches of WW1. Do you recognise him? Click on the underlined text, or on the photo, to take you to his full record. We recently lost our most enthusiast family historian, font of knowledge, and supporter of this Gibbs Family Tree. There will be a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Christopher Gibbs on Thursday 15th November at 3pm in St James’s Piccadilly. In addition to the website changes, I have also changed the email address to [email protected], hoping to reduce junk mail; please add this to you address book. I will keep checking the old gmail for a while as well. I encourage you to send me any family updates and forward this newsletter to your wider family inviting them to subscribe. Check your own entry, including the notes, and send me photos if there aren’t any. I also invite your feedback and recommendation on the family tree website and this newsletters and welcome future newsletter contributions. Family Updates - hatches, matches, dispatches ... Please do let me know about family births, marriages, deaths and other family news, not only so that I can keep the Family Tree living and accurate, but also to let the wider family know. Jude Denis Gibbs born to Charlie Gibbs-Henny (son of Sarah Gibbs) and Holly on 18th May 2018 Frederick Robby Gibbs Allen-Back born to Jessica and Joshua, a grandson to Vicary Aldenham, born in London on 29th August 2018. Barnaby Charles Gordon-Lennox born on to Hamish abd Susannah 16th Sep 2018 Jack's eldest daughter Nancy Gibbs was married to Peter Douglas on July 14th; they met as teenagers at school. Jack's mother and all her first cousins were there. Isabel Orlanda Medley White married William Thomas Morgan on 21st July 2018 Samuel George Loveday, married Suzanne Ruth Trevena on 9 September 2017 Isabel Margaret Ramsay Howell (née Gibbs) married John Robert Page on 23rd September 2017 Emma Margaret Belak (née Edgedale) died peacefully on 9th January 2017, after a long illness bravely fought. Beloved mother of Freddy, Ella and Charlotte Dos Santos. Funeral on 24th January, at St Mary's Battersea. Santos. Funeral on 24th January, at St Mary's Battersea. Clare Ziegler (nee Charrington) died on 14th November 2017. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend. Funeral at St Mary's The Boltons, Kensington, Tuesday 28th November. Jean Frances Woodroffe (nee Hambro), (previously wife of Vicary Paul Gibbs, KIA WW2) died peacefully on 7th December 2017, aged 94. Much-loved mother of Jenny, Rosie and the late Jamie and adored grandmother and great-grandmother. Funeral in Mere, on 19th December, thanksgiving at St Mary's Church, Worplesdon. Antony Woodall on 9th March, aged 86. Peacefully in hospital after a short illness. Beloved husband of Deirdre, greatly loved father, grandfather and brother. Funeral on 29th March at the Church of St Nicholas, Great Hormead. Christopher Henry Gibbs died peacefully at his home in Tangier on 29th July 2018; Beloved brother of Julian, Roger and Elizabeth, much loved Uncle and friend to so many. Funeral in Tangier on August 1st, a Service of Thanksgiving will be held at St James's Piccadilly, at 3pm, on 15th November 2018. Rev. William Gilbert Gibbs on 20th September 2018, aged 87. Beloved husband of the late Sally and a much-loved father and grandfather. Burial at Winwick, followed by a celebration of his life at St Etheldreda's Church, Guilsborough, on 10th October Sir Roger Geoffrey Gibbs on 3rd October 2018, died peacefully at home on 3rd October 2018. Adored husband of Jane, beloved brother of Elizabeth and Julian and the late David, Stephen and Christopher. Family funeral. Service of thanksgiving on 15th March 2019, 2:30pm, at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. The family and the First World War 1914-1918 With the Centenary upon us it seemed appropriate to reflect upon the massive impact that WW1 had on our family, as it did on so many others. Inside one of Christopher’s books I came across a list of 45 “Relations of Henry Lord Aldenham serving in the War” compiled from Army List of 30th November and Navy Lists of 18th December 1915. Already 4 are marked as Killed in that first year, and others lost their lives, or were severely impacted, in the following years. In previous newsletter Eion Gibbs wrote about coming across his GG-Uncle Noel Martin’s 1916 grave in Tanzania. I checked the list against the online Forces War Records and confirmed many of the comprehensive war details documented in our family tree. David Hogg, an avid researcher and author of books about the Gibbs Family, wrote "In Memoriam – Tyntesfield and the First World War" dedicated to the young men from Tyntesfield whose lives were sacrificed during the First World War. in addition to the extensive letters and diaries from the Front, the book also recounts the lives of some of the women back home. Victoria de Burgh Gibbs (Lady Wraxall) was Vice President of the Somerset Red Cross and helped establish hospital wards in Flax Bourton and Portishead, equipped with furniture from Tyntesfield and supplying vegetables from the gardens. Via also directed the Bristol Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Help Society. She sadly the gardens. Via also directed the Bristol Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Help Society. She sadly succumbed to the flu epidemic shortly after the war. Ursula Lawley (later Last Wraxall) was a VAD nurse in France, awarded the Royal Red Cross. On the other side of the world, after the demise of guano, Antony Gibbs & Sons had become heavily involved in the nitrate business in Chile, which led the British government at the outbreak of war in 1914 to ask the firm to take over the purchasing, shipping, and financing of all nitrate requirements for munitions; to see to its storage, and its delivery to factories. These services the firm rendered without charge to the government. The Soldier and the Officer - Bourton WW1 Bourton, in North Dorset, have established a small exhibition (a comprehensive booklet available to be downloaded) about life there during WW1 In the exhibit they contrast the lives of two local men who lost their lives in the war. Their family homes at opposite ends of the village, Will Candy and George Hallam Parr couldn’t have been more different. George is pictured with his officers at the front. Lady Lilian Mary Parr (nee Gibbs) lost her husband and both sons, all of whom served in the army, within 4 year of each other, commemorated in a stained glass window at St Mary’s, Taunton. She lent her house as a military hospital during the war. Vicary Aldenham attended the exhibition opening. St Dunstan's and Blind Veterans UK St Dunstan’s in Regents Park was the London home Henry Hucks Gibbs, Baron Aldenham, until his death in 1907. There are several photos of the house in one of Christopher’s albums, with it's famous chiming clock representing Gog and Magog, rescued from St Dunstan-in-the-West church. Built for the 3rd Marquess of Hertford (who used it for orgies), in 1914 the then owner Otto Kahn lent the house to a new charity for blinded servicemen, which took the name of St Dunstan’s Hostel for Blind Soldiers and Sailors . The idea was to provide a hostel where ex-servicemen would go after they had received hospital treatment to ‘learn to be blind’. By 1929 there were still two thousand men in their care. After a fire in 1936 the house was demolished and later became the US Ambassador’s official residence, with 12 acre grounds. Creative Cousins: Actors, Artists, Artisans and Authors Creative Cousins: Actors, Artists, Artisans and Authors While the Gibbs families have a rich history of Merchants, Bankers, Soldiers and Clergy, many cousins have channelled their energies into other creative careers or hobbies. See previous creative cousins, and please let me know of new creative cousins … Artists - Art Nicholas Roland Gibbs has had several exhibitions of his works in London galleries and the Imperial War Museum, on paintings of Balkans conflict and his travels. More recently he has come up with theory on the 15th-century indecipherable coded Voynich manuscript Lucinda Jane Gibbs (born in Zimbabwe, living in Paris) shared an exhibition with Nicholas in London last year. Leonie Gibbs (nee Fox-Pitt) is a sculptress and a painter living in the north of Scotland on the Belladrum estate with husband Joe. My sister, Carol Misch (nee Gibbs), found time from running an energetic creative household and painting album covers for son Tom Misch, to create this glass sculpture, with internal double helices representing DNA, commissioned in memory of those children who died at the Evelina Children's Hospital before it was relocated from the Guy's to the St Thomas' site in 2005. Stained Glass Windows of Clyst St George Church Dr. Stuart Bird, who lives in Clyst St George, has been researching the stained glass in the church. He has extended an invitation to the family to attend an illustrated talk on Charles Kempe, renowned Victorian stained glass artist, on 22nd November. If you would be interested in attending let me know. Nicholas Gibbs recounted how his father as a child was watching the bombing of Exeter when the church was hit by a Stuka bomb and his grandfather Antony Hubert was blown off his feet by the percussion of the explosion.