Captain Evan Llewellyn Gibbs

Notes:

Baptised 21 July 1906 at St. George's, Clyst St. George. Educated at Eton College 1919/24 and Royal Military College, Sandhurst 1925-26. Killed in Action near Dunkirk, 1st June 1940.

2nd Lieut. Coldstream Guards 1926; Lieut. 1929, Capt. 1940. Served with the Shanghai Defence Force 1927-28. Resigned from the Army, February 1930 and joined British Shareholders' Trust in the City of London, but remained on the Reserve until re-called to serve in the Second World War. Member of the Stock Exchange, and partner in David A. Sevan, Stockbrokers, from 1933-39. He was killed on June 1st 1940 while commanding No. 1 Company, 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards, at Hondeschoote, six miles behind Dunkirk while forming the rear guard of the B.E.F. He was buried by the villagers and afterwards buried by the War Graves Commission in Warhem Cemetery near Dunkirk. He is mentioned in the following books: "Fight Another Day" by J. M. Langley, published by Collins, 1974;
"No Dishonourable Name" by D. C. Quilter, published by Clowes, 1947; "The Coldstream Guards 1920-1946" by Michael Howard and John Sparrow, pub. by The Oxford University Press, 1951.

Portrait as a child in pastel by H. M. Heaton in possession of grandson Patrick Gibbs.

Died:
Killed in Action

Evan married Monica Elizabeth Wyldbore-Smith on 28 Apr 1930 in Westminster, London. Monica (daughter of Sir Edmund Charles Wyldbore-Smith and Evadne Maude Kellett) was born on 29 Sep 1900 in Lonsdale, Kyle, Wexforth; died on 8 Jul 1973 in Winchester, Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Michael Edmund Hubert Gibbs was born on 31 Mar 1932 in Chelsea, London; died on 27 Mar 2016 in London.
2. Lt. Col. Sir Peter Evan Wyldbore Gibbs, LVO, CVO, KCVO was born on 1 Feb 1934 in Chelsea, London; died on 6 Sept 2001 in Clyst St George, Devon.
3. Evadne Jane Gibbs was born on 17 May 1938 in Chelsea, London; died on 7 Jun 2020.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Departure: Santa Fe, Argentina
• Baptism: 8 Nov 1874, Wraxall, Somerset
• Residence: 1881, Wraxall, Somerset
• Residence: 1891, Wraxall, Somerset
• Residence: 2 Apr 1911, Clyst St Mary, Devon
• Arrival: 1 Dec 1960, London

Notes:

2nd son of Antony Gibbs of Tyntesfield. Baptised 8 November 1874 at Wraxall, Somerset. Educated at Eton College, 1888-92; matric. Cambridge (Trinity Hall) 1893; BA 1897.

Tenant of his brother George from 1899 of Pytte, Clyst St. George. In the firm of Antony Gibbs & Sons in the City of London 1898-9. Partner from 1899 in Milford Snow & Co. (The City Bank) Exeter, since united with Sanders & Co. (The Exeter Bank) later the National Provincial Bank, Ltd., of which he was a local director. Among many other official occupations in Devon, member of The Tuckers' Hall, Exeter, from 1906, President for 1912. President of Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital 1923-5. Treasurer from 1930. Chairman of St. Thomas' (Exeter) District Council and Chairman of St. Thomas' Guardians' Committee. Member of the Devon County Council and of the Devon Standing Joint Committee; Treasurer of the Board of Finance of Diocese of Exeter to July 1930, vice-Chairman from July 1930; Treasurer of the East Devon Hunt, and of sundry other institutions. Chairman of the Devon and Exeter Dispensary, 1909, of the West of England Institution for the Blind, 1912, and of the Devon and Exeter Institution, 1929. A Justice of the Peace for Devon from 1922. A Trustee of St. Michael's Home, Cheddar. Member of the Carlton Club from 1913.

2nd Lieut. North Somerset Yeomanry, 1895; Lieut., December 1898; Captain 1904; Major, June 1912. Coronation Medal of King Edward VII, 1903. Territorial Decoration, 1915. In the Great War served with the North Somerset Yeo., 4 August 1914 to Mar. 1917, and was in France with them 2 November 1914 to May 1915, the Regt. being part of the 6th Cavalry Brig, of 3rd Cav. Division under Major General The Hon. Julian Byng now Lord Byng of Vimy. In command of 3rd N. Som. Yeo. at Bath May 1915-March 1917; on Quarter Master General's Staff of Southern Command at Salisbury May 1917 to end of the War. Medals of the War, 1914 Star, British War Medal, Allies' (Victory) Medal.

He was a proficient carpenter, electrician and mechanic, turning articles in ivory and wood on his lathe, an art he had learned from his father. In 1923 he made a gavel and block to be used by the Chairman of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Committee. The gavel is still in the possession of the Hospital and is stamped "A. H. Gibbs 1923, R.D.E.H. Fecit". During the Second World War he became an Air-raid Warden and was given the Defence Medal at the end of the war.
Clyst St. George Church. (Extract from A. Hubert Gibbs obituary in the Express and Echo and Western Morning News, 31 July 1957). "After the destruction of the church by enemy action in 1940, it was rebuilt thanks to his untiring energy and patience, in a style which has won warm approval by its beauty and comfort. In this cause he obtained grants and raised funds, chose the best architect and builders available, and selected the most suitable designs for the lovely east and west windows. He was also the prime mover in the erection of the Parish Hall, of which he was a trustee and the first chairman." It is believed that this church was the first in England to be destroyed in the Second World War (by incendiaries). With his own hands he salvaged the two oldest Gibbs' memorials: to John Gibbe, 1592 (brass); and to George Gibbs (stone), 1692, which he put in a wheelbarrow and reassembled in a cow shed at Pytte, where it remained until the rebuilding in 1950, when it was put together again (not quite complete) by Herbert Read. The church was re-dedicated on 4 July 1952. Architects: Nicholson & Rushton, Lincolns Inn; Builders, Dart & Francis Ltd., Crediton; Windows (east and west), by Hugh Easton, London. Bells: recast and rehung by Hughes & Stainbank of Whitechapel, London.
The Reredos and Bosses were the gift of William Otter Gibbs from Barrow Court oratory.

There is a memorial to Hubert, Mercy and their son Evan in the form of altar rails by Herbert Read, 1948, and altar rail gates by Herbert Read (son) 1961.

Portraits: Pastel by H.M. Heaton last in possession of his son Antony; one by E. Clifford (1878) was in possession of Lord Wraxall in 1930.

Antony married Mary Mercy Llewellyn on 18 Oct 1899 in Burrington, Devon. Mary (daughter of Evan Henry Llewellyn and Mary Blanche Somers) was born on 26 Jun 1875 in Langford Court, Burrington, Somerset; died on 16 Jan 1956 in Pytte, Clyst St George, Devon. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 11 Jul 1875, Burrington, Somerset

Notes:

1st daughter of Evan H. Llewellyn of Langford Court, Burrington, Somerset, MP (by Mary Blanche, 1st daughter of Thomas Somers (died 1862) of Mendip Lodge, Burrington, for whom see Burke's 'Landed Gentry'. Baptised 11 July 1875 at Burrington.

Co-opted member of the Devon County Council's Committee for Care of the Mentally Defective. Member of the following committees: Exeter Diocesan Association for Care of Friendless Girls (Chairman 1927-9); the Devon Voluntary Association for Welfare of the Mentally Defective; the Royal West of England Institution for the Deaf and Dumb; Devon District Nursing Assn. (Topsham & District). Founder Member and 1st President of Clyst St. George & Ebford Women's Institute. A Trustee of St. Michael's Home, Cheddar. Founded Clyst St. George Mother's Union branch 1912.

Portrait: Pastel by H. M. Heaton in possession of great-nephew Patrick Gibbs.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: High Sheriff, county Somerset
• Baptism: 11 Jan 1842, St Johns, Paddington, London
• Residence: 1901, Paddington, London

Notes:

1st son of Tyntesfield. Baptised 11 January 1842 at St. John's, Paddington. Educated at Radley College 1855-7; matric. at Oxford (Exeter College) 2 May 1862; BA 1867; MA 1869; entered at the Inner Temple as a student 1865. Died at Tyntesfield 24 and was buried 29 April 1907 at Wraxall, Somerset. Memorial Inscription in churchyard there and in the chapel (Charlton chapel), in Tyntesfield chapel and Keble College chapel; Memorial window in Clyst St. George chapel. Will dated 23 March 1905, proved 12 July 1907.

After marriage, Charlton (see entry for William Gibbs of Tyntesfield) was his country residence till his mother died; thereafter Tyntesfield. He succeeded to his father's properties in Somerset and Devon. He bought Barrow Court in Barrow Gurney, Somerset, adjoining Flax Bourton, from John Henry Blagrave in 1881 and sold it (with most of its land) to his brother Martin in 1884 and he augmented the living of Barrow Gurney. He bought, about 1874, Barton Place in the parish of St. David, Exeter, the ancestral home of his wife's family. He was patron of the livings of Clyst St. George, Exwick, Stowe-nine-churches, St. Michael's in Paddington, North Newton and Otterbourne which were all in his father's gift, also of Alphington, Devon, and of Flax Barton (in which part of the Tyntesfield Estate lies) both of which he bought.

A member of the Council of Radley College 1890-7. He and his brother, Martin, gave to Keble College, Oxford, in their father's memory, the side of the main quadrangle of the College embracing the hall, library, common rooms and kitchen. The foundation stone was laid in 1876, on the same day that the Chapel given by their father to the College was opened (see also entry for William Gibbs of Tyntesfield), and the opening took place in 1878, when the two brothers, whose names had so far been withheld, were disclosed as the donors (the deed of gift hangs in the Senior Common Room of the College).

Wraxall church was restored (1893) at his chief cost (Sir Arthur Blomfield, architect), and he introduced the stained glass windows by Kemp, and screened off the Charlton chapel, adding to it the reredos by Kemp.

He joined the North Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry as Cornet, 3 January, 1871; Captain October, 1881; Hon. Major, 1881; Major, 1886; retired 1893.

Justice of the Peace for Somerset from about 1867 to 1907. On the Highway Board and Board of Guardians. High Sheriff of Somerset for 1888 and Deputy Lieutenant 1889-1907. An Alderman of the Somerset County Council to 1898. President of the North Somerset Conservative Association for a great number of years. A Life Governor of Bristol General Hospital. On Bristol Diocesan committees for the promotion of Church matters. (In Sidney Lee's 'Life of King Edward VII (1923-7) it is related that the King when Prince of Wales twice in 1881 pressed on Gladstone the bestowal of a Baronetcy on Antony Gibbs. His son Lord Wraxall told John Arthur Gibbs - fourth editor of the Gibbs Pedigree - that this story was inaccurate and he asked Lee to omit it from any later edition, the facts being that the Liberal Whip Marjoribanks (later Lord Tweedmouth invited Antony to an interview, at which he said that gladstone desired to suggest him to the Queen for a Peerage, making reference to his and his father's philanthropic works, but that Antony having then mentioned that he was a Conservative he heard no more of the matter

Portraits: as a child by John Phillip, miniature with his father and sister Dorothea by Sir Wm. Ross, oil by J. H. Lorimer; all last in possession of Lord Wraxall in 1930 (11). The portrait in the Hall of Keble College is a copy by F. George Swaish of the Lorimer.

Birth:
13 Hyde Park Gardens

Antony married Janet Louisa Merivale on 22 Jun 1872 in St. Michael's, Star Street, Paddington. Janet (daughter of John Louis Merivale and Mary Anne Webster) was born on 15 Dec 1850 in Kilburn, Middlesex; died on 10 Dec 1909 in London; was buried on 14 Dec 1909 in Wraxall, Somerset. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 25 Jan 1851, Hampstead, London
• Residence: 1861, Exeter St David, Exeter, Devon
• Residence: 1881, Wraxall, Somerset

Notes:

1st daughter of John Louis Merrivale (died 1886) by his 1st wife Mary Anne, daughter of Joseph Webster. Baptised 25 January 1851 at the parish church of Hampstead, Middlesex. Died at 104 Eaton Square, Westminster, 10th and was buried 14 December 1909 at Wraxall, Somerset. Memorial Inscription in same places as her husband's except Keble College. Will dated 17 August 1908, proved 20 January 1910.

After her husband died she resided at Charlton aforesaid, and for her London house took 104 Eaton Sq., Westminster, in place of 16 Hyde Park Gds. aforesaid. the lease of which she sold. One of her brothers, George Montagu Merivale (1855-1931) was a partner in Gibbs, Bright & Co., Sydney, Australia, till 1924. Her father was Senior Registrar in Chancery and brother of Herman Merivale, C.B., and of Charles, Dean of Ely, whose lives are in Dictionary National Biography.

Her father's 2nd wife was his cousin, Frances Rose, sister of Baron John Benjamin Heath (born 1879), who was son of John Heath of the firm Heath and Co., Genoa. For the Merivale family and their relatives of the Heath, Drury, Malet and Frere families, and for printed books which refer to them see the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs. The friendship between the Gibbs and Merivale families began in 1803 when Antony Gibbs (born 1756) went to live at Cowley near Barton Place.

Portrait by Archer (1875) with her son George
(Lord Wraxall) was last in possession of the latter, 1930.

Notes:

Colonel Evan Henry Llewellyn (25 February 1847 – 27 February 1914) was a British Army officer and a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1885 and 1906.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Henry_Llewellyn

Evan married Mary Blanche Somers on 29 Oct 1868 in Axbridge, Somerset. Mary was born in Jan 1847 in Burrington, Somerset; died on 3 Feb 1906 in Axbridge, Somerset. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Head of Antony Gibbs & Sons
• Baptism: 21 Jul 1790, British Embassy, Madrid, Spain
• Residence: 1861, Paddington, London; Relationship: Head
• Residence: 1871, Wraxall, Somerset; Relation to Head of House: Head

Notes:

His baptism in Madrid is recorded in the Register of St. Mary Major, Exeter, see Additions of 1927 in the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, p.XVI (4).

He was employed in Cadiz, Lisbon and England in his father's business 1802-5; in his uncle George's (George Gibbs of Redland) business (Gibbs Richards and Gibbs) in Bristol, 1806-8; in London under his father in the Portuguese Commission 1808-9; in London in Antony Gibbs and Son 1809-12. Partner in Antony Gibbs & Sons 1813-75; resident in Cadiz in charge of their House there 1813-22: head of A. Gibbs & Sons 1843-75 and sole partner 1843-7. During his headship the South American business prospered exceedingly. Member of Lloyds 1812-75.

After marriage his successive residences in London were 13 Hyde Park Street (number since changed) 1840-8, Gloucester Square 1849, Sussex Square 1850, 16 Hyde Park Gardens 1851-75, all in Paddington. He bought the estate and house of Tyntesfield, Wraxall, north Somerset in April 1844 from Reverend George Turner Seymour, at various times (notably 1862-4) greatly altered the house (John Norton one of the architects) and at the end of his life built the beautiful chapel to it (Sir A. W. Blomfield, architect). He added to his property in 1865 the adjoining estate and house called Charlton (in Wraxall parish) buying it from the Kingston family, and in 1870 he reunited Belmont and Tyntesfield, buying Belmont from his nephew George L. M. Gibbs. In Devon he bought back Pytte the ancient home of our family in Clyst St. George from the executors of General Doveton, in 1859, made other purchases in that parish, rebuilt cottages, and amongst other benefactions to the village and church gave a memorial window (1860) to his grandfather (George Abraham Gibbs of Pytte). He also bought from Lord Devon in 1873 an estate in Alphington, nr. Exeter (which extended into Whitestone). At Littlemore, Oxon, he bought in 1872 the house of his cousin and former partner Charles Crawley.

The village school and school-master's house at Clifton Hampden, Oxon, in 1847, and the Church at Flaxley, in Gloucestershire, in 1856 were both built at his cost (the architect being G. Gilbert Scott): so also in 1861 were St. Michael and All Angels Church in Star Street, Paddington, and its vicarage (architect Rhode Hawkins). In Devon, he built in 1868 the Chapel-of-Ease of St. Antony at Cowley in memory of his parents and of his own life there, and at the same time and with the same architect (R. Hawkins) the Church of St. Michael and All Angels and its vicarage in the parish of St. David, Exeter; and in 1872 he enlarged the church at Exwick and in 1874 built its vicarage on the site of the grounds of his father's one time residence Exwick House. Moreover, he contributed largely to the restoration of Exeter and Bristol Cathedrals. The endowments of the livings of Exwick, St. Michael's Exeter, and St. Michael's Paddington, were also gifts from him. He acquired the advowsons of Clyst St. George (1857), Exwick, St. Michael's in Paddington, Stowe-nine-churches, North Newton in Somerset, and Otterbourne in Hampshire (the latter because of its connection with Rev. John Keble). He founded in 1859 at Brixham, Devon, a Mission to Seamen of ships sheltering in Torbay, and in 1860 there the British Seamen's Orphan Boys' Home for the Western Counties, his interest in that parish being due to his temporary tenancy of Berryhead House there, the home of Rev. John Hogg.

Of all his gifts the most famous was the chapel of Keble College Oxford. He offered it to the College in 1872 (on the suggestion of his friend Sir John Taylor Coleridge), and himself laid the foundation stone on St. Mark's Day (25 April) 1873. He died in 1875, and his son Antony formally presented it at the opening service on St. Mark's Day 1876, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The same day Lord Salisbury (Chancellor of the University) laid the foundation stone of the block of buildings given to the College by William's sons Antony and Martin. W. Butterfield was architect both of chapel and block, as of the rest of the College.

William was an original (1832) member of the City of London Club and a member of the Athenaeum Club. Memorial Inscription in Wraxall church and churchyard at Tyntesfield chapel, Barrow Court chapel, Flaxley church, St. Michael's Paddington (rose window erected by the parish in his memory), St. Michael's Exeter, Keble College Chapel, Cowley chapel, Exwick chapel and St. Martin's Brighton.

For his life in detail up to 1824 and for some particulars as to his later years see book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J. A. Gibbs. See also a booklet 'In memory of William Gibbs' (privileged printing Rivingtons, 1875) containing (inter alia) an article on his life and character by E.M.Goulburn, Dean of Norwich, reprinted from The Guardian newspaper.

For portraits and scultpures of him see Gibbs Pedigree (1904) p.16 and list in 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, p.435. In the latter G. Richmond as artist of the posthumous portrait at Keble College is an error for Sir William B. Richmond, R.A. This portrait is wrongly stated to be after Boxall in 'Catalogue of Portraits in Oxford Colleges' by Mrs. Poole, Vol. III, part II, 1925. The portrait in the list in the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs by 'artist unkown' in possession of John A. Gibbs was by E. Gill and has since been destroyed. Portraits not in the lists are, one by Edward Opie, which was in possession of Lord Wraxall, and a copy in A. Gibbs and Sons' possession of the one of the Portraits by Boxall which is engraved by Cousins.



More information available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibbs_(businessman)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - William Gibbs https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/89656

William married Matilda Blanche Crawley-Boevey on 1 Aug 1839 in Flaxley, Gloucestershire. Matilda (daughter of Sir Thomas Crawley-Boevey, 3rd Bart. of Flaxley and Mary Albinia Page) was born on 17 Dec 1817 in Eastgate street, Gloucester; died on 22 Sep 1887 in Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 16 Jan 1818, St Michael, Gloucester, Gloucestershire
• Residence: 1881, Paddington, London

Notes:

During her widowhood Tyntesfield and 16 Hyde Park Gardens continued to be her residences. She built (1876-8) and endowed St. Michael's Home for Consumptives in the parish of Cheddar, Somerset in memory of her husband, redecorated the chancel of St. Michael's, Exeter, which he built, and improved Exwick church. She endowed Keble College, Oxford (1881) with a fund of an annual value of £800 for Scholarships and for other grants to students. She built and maintained (as also did her son Antony after her) a Cottage Convalescent Home ("St. John's Lodge") at Wraxall afsd. and also built there in 1885 the large village club and in 1887 seven almshouses ("The Jubilee Cottages"): also the Battle Axes Inn, establishing it in her own name and on the principle of temperance as opposed to teetotalism. She gave the site (the site was left to her by her husband, she left money to the Home in her will) for the Convalescent and Incurable Home at Woking, Surrey, founded in connection with the Sisterhood of St. Peter's Kilburn, which manages St. Michael's Home afsd. A ward in Weston-super-Mare Convalescent Home, where she undertook the cost of 33 beds, bore her name.

Memorial Inscription in Wraxall churchyard and church; Tyntesfield chapel; Barrow Gurney chapel (to which she game some windows); Flaxley church (organ remade in her memory); the chapel of Keble College; and M. windows in Barrow Court chapel.

Refer to the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, especially pp. 33-5, 439 and 445-6 for her relations, ancestry, and 'Royal Descent', and for notes of printed books which refer to them; see also entry for her father Rev. Charles Crawley. A good memoir of her by "C.M.Y." (her friend and cousin Charlotte M. Yonge, the authoress) appeared in The Guardian newspaper at her death. For lists of Portraits and Sculpture see Gibbs Pedigree (1904) and the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, p. 435, and add to them a drawing (1873) by C.W.S (was in possession of Martin A Gibbs).

John married Mary Anne Webster on 14 Mar 1849 in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. Mary was born in 1829 in Penns, Warwickshire; died on 5 Oct 1857 in Exeter, Devon. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Christening: 22 Mar 1829, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire