Author: Jeremy Collingwood
Published Date: November 2008
Publisher: Phillimore
ISBN: 186077587X, 9781860775871
Length: 176 pages
Price: £19.99 (or less)
Available From: Amazon, Local Libraries, Occasionally from The Tourist Information Centre in Saffron Walden & Google Books
Description
GEORGE STACEY GIBSON was in many ways the quintessential Victorian philanthropist. Very little happened in Saffron Walden without his knowledge. As the town’s banker, Gibson had his finger in many pies. He was a Councillor and then Alderman for 24 years, and was twice elected Mayor. He was Treasurer of the local British Schools for 45 years, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Guardians, and Chairman of the Management Committee of the Saffron Walden Hospital. It was Gibson who was prominent in bringing the railway to the town. He was also a distinguished botanist and author of the Flora of Essex. He was a leading member of the Society of Friends both locally and nationally.
But it is as Saffron Walden’s greatest benefactor that Gibson is best remembered. Both during his lifetime and after his death, there was hardly any institution in Gibson’s native town which did not benefit from his liberality. It was said of the Gibsons that their business instincts compelled them to make money and their faith compelled them to give it away. Gibson, when he died in 1883, left a substantial estate of £342.456, worth at least 23 million in today’s money. This was distributed to the hospital, the museum, the literary society, the Grammar School, the British Schools, the Friends School, the training school for female teachers, the almshouses, as well as outside the town.
THE AUTHOR
After graduating from Corpus Christi Cambridge, Jeremy Collingwood taught Law in Zambia and then worked for the Director of Public Prosecutions in London. After ordination into the Anglican ministry, he held incumbencies in Bristol and Guildford before retirement. He is fascinated by local history. He is the author of a number of books including: Common Law Marriage: The Case for a Change in the Law, The Criminal Law of East and Central Africa, Hannah More (with his wife Margaret), Francis Paynter, A Remarkable Guildfordian, and As A Witness to the Light: The story of Chengelo School in Zambia.
First reveiwed in Saffron Walden Historical Journal No 17: Spring 2009