Dame Anstice Gibbs, CRVO 1905 -1978
By Jean Cross
Anstice Gibbs was born 2nd January 1905, with her twin Bernard Vicary. She was the youngest in a family of four boys and two girls. Her parents were the Venerable Hon. Kenneth Francis Gibbs, Canon of St. Albans, and his wife Mabel Alice who were married in 1894 and they resided in the vicarage in Aldenham at the time of her birth.
They later moved to Hatfield,where they lived in the Old Rectory, which was on the northwest side of Salisbury Square. Anstice was an active Guide in Hatfield in the 1920s and was the Lieutenant of 1st Hatfield Guide Company from 1923 when her older sister Dorothea was Captain.
In 1925 Anstice became Guider in charge with Jessie Crawford and Mrs. Standinge.
After the death of her husband in early 1935, Mrs. Mabel Gibbs sold the Old Rectory and the family briefly moved to Leicester. However, this was only for a brief time and they soon bought Cumberland Cottage in Redbourn and continued to Guide in Hatfield. Both Mrs. Gibbs and Anstice’s sister Dorothea were active members of Guiding in Hatfield.
By 1937 Anstice had become District Commissioner and it was she who lead Guiding in Hatfield during the war years,starting a Guide company for evacuated girls,and running Guide and Ranger Camps during this time.
Under her leadership the District thrived,with a growing number of leaders; not an easy feat during unsettled times. However, in 1948 Anstice gave up her role as District Commissioner and moved on to Guide elsewhere.
In 1956 she was appointed to the role of Chief Commissioner and Chairwoman of the British Commonwealth Girl Guides Association. Between 1957 and 1960 she was also the Vice-Chair of the world Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS). In 1960 she was invested as a Commander, Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.).
In her roles she travelled widely and often, frequently visiting North America for Guiding conferences and events, During her time as Vice-Chair of WAGGS, Our Cabana, the third Guiding World Centre, opened in Mexico. She frequently visited St. James’s Palace to see Princess Margaret, the President of the Association from 1965.She visited Guides in many countries and welcomed countless visitors to her office and to her own home. Anstice would also have been instrumental in the introduction of the new “air hostess” style uniforms of the 1960s.
She did not forget her Hertfordshire roots, attending the County Service at St Albans Abbey in 1960 and opening the Camp Hut in Hatfield 1961.
She also did not forget her “Old Guides” – attending at least one Trefoil Guild meeting in 1949 and a garden party in 1951 after her return from Canada and also opened one of the Guild’s sales in Hatfield Memorial Hall in 1965
Her role s Chief Commissioner ended in 1966 and in 1967 she was invested as Dame Commander, Royal Victorian Order (D.C.V.O). She died in Hampshire on 7th February 1978. A Service of Thanksgiving was held at St. Martins in the Fields on 12 April 1978 with the address given by the Reverend William Gibbs.
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Dear Miss Cross, just for the record the Rev.Gibbs family did indeed move into The Old Rectory (just after WW1?) but the large house was not in Salisbury Square but where it remains today,at the end of Old Rectory Drive
My wonderful grandmother, Mary Anne Rogers was the housekeeper for the fifteen years until 1935 when Kenneth Gibbs died and as you say Mrs Gibbs sold the place.It later became Howe Dell school and is now some kind of place offering care for disturbed young people
My grandmother and her three children loved the place and the Gibbs family who were easy going and not very demanding I have many photos of them there
One reason perhaps why there was a relaxed attitude there was perhaps as my grandmother told me ,^Mrs Gibbs had great difficulty keeping servants^ The fact that the house was a brief walk to Hatfield station and only one stop to the booming new town of Welwyn Garden City and its many light industries was probably to blame
Although I was born just off Abbey Road in London my earliest months before my birth in 1935 were spent in the Old Rectory
My mother later became a private dressmaker and her business woman sister a director of a fashion house.