My father started work as an office boy at a firm then called Gibbon and Moore at 32 Great James Street in Holborn, now a limited company, GMS Estates Ltd.
He ended up as Company Secretary and I remember many times going to their offices in Holborn, where they are still to this day.
They sent me a book about their history which stretches back 150 years and in the Forward, at the beginning of the book, there is my dad mentioned as helping Ralph Moore (who I met). This book is in our library.
It all began with a character called James Gibbon, He was born in 1819 in Kettering and was a problem to his parents, and eventually, they sent him off to Australia with instructions to find some settled occupation. His amazing success is described in the book but in summary, in 1885 he returned to the UK and died three years later when his fortune was about £500,000 which is over £60 million in today’s money!
Other than the book I have also retained typed copies of some letters between the Gibbon families, including some from James Gibbon, in the 1840s and 1850s between Australia and England. Fascinating insight into their lives then – before he made his fortune.
The company was very good to my mother as my father was dying at just 52 and I had seven condolence letters from the directors and the Gibbon and Moore families when he died (these letters were burned in March 2019)
Here is a photo of Lord and Lady Gibbon
