The Guardian newspaper has a very topical Valentines Day love story “Nelson urged mistress to give their baby girl ‘new’ smallpox vaccine“. It recounts that the “chance discovery” of a 220-year-old love letter from Admiral Horatio Nelson to Lady Emma … Continue reading →
In my last post I wrote that “…the family appears to have had minimal involvement in the major theatres of British Imperial reach – North America, India and Africa …”. I was promptly pointed to The Journal of Vicary Gibbs … Continue reading →
Much has been written about the extensive involvement of the Gibbs family in Southern Europe, Latin America and Australia, but the family appears to have had minimal involvement in the major theatres of British Imperial reach – North America, India … Continue reading →
The church of St Michael and All Angels at Clifton Hampden in Oxfordshire exists in its present form because of the Gibbs family – and it is an architectural gem. Pevsner talks of its “theatrical quality” standing on its cliff overlooking the … Continue reading →
Cousin Sarah came across this poem ‘Inscription for an Oak Tree’ recently while sorting through books and papers cleared from her father Denis Gibbs’ study. The poem was written by Sir John Coleridge as an inscription for an Oak Tree … Continue reading →
The Reverend Nathaniel Woodard was a C19th Anglican priest whose chief legacy was the founding of schools for the middle classes in England to provide education based on “sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly grounded in the Christian faith”. There … Continue reading →
Recent events with “Black Lives Matter”, the pulling down of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol Harbour, and newspaper articles indicating that over 1/3rd of National Trust Houses have links to slavery (including specific mentions of Tyntesfield – the home … Continue reading →
Hunkered down isolating from Covid-19 these last couple of months, had me thinking how fortunate we are to have modern science and medicine giving us the hope of tools to understand and combat this pandemic; though for some of us … Continue reading →
A recent article in The Guardian (which I have taken the liberty of duplicating below – in case it disappears), prompted me to delve into the Gibbs family involvement with this historic ship. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the … Continue reading →
Having just returned from nearly 3 weeks travelling around Panama I was intrigued by the country’s history, vital links for travel and trade in the Americas, and a connected Gibbs Family Tragedy exactly 150 years ago. The Panama Canal is … Continue reading →
