Allan David Gibb (1944-1953)
Died 2022, aged 87
Allan’s father, John, was from Edinburgh; an accountant who moved to the City in 1923. A keen sportsman, he met Jeannie when he needed physiotherapy for a footballing injury. They settled at 47 Woodhall Drive, Pinner, Middlesex and Allan was born there in 1935. Allan’s brother Ian was born two years later. One of Allan’s earliest memories was being taken outside at night to see the glow of the Blitz of London. Jeannie was popular with the three boys for her rock cakes and bread & butter pudding.
Allan and Ian were educated at St John’s School, Pinner and Merchant Taylors’ (1944 - 1953). Education was interrupted by searches for shrapnel, watching the RAF’s vapour trails across the sky, listening out for V1s, steam trains at the end of the cricket field and being an active army cadet, winning marching competitions. In recent years I was proud to return with Allan for afternoon tea at Merchant Taylors’, travel on the Metropolitan line and walk Pinner High Street with him, hearing his stories of girls he went to the cinema and church with as a teenager.
From School, Allan went on to St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in 1953. There Allan met Daphne, a Nightingale nurse, when he was doing the lighting for a hospital Christmas play. It wasn’t long before he was taking her to Pinner, where his mum told him “don’t make a mess of this one”. They explored in Ian’s red Austin Seven “Fred” while Ian did national service in Hong Kong; on one occasion getting a police escort from Buckingham Palace to St Thomas’ when late for one of Daphne’s shifts. After qualifying in 1959, Allan did a house job at West Suffolk Hospital, with Daphne often visiting, dining at the Swan at Lavenham and staying in the nurse’s quarters. They were married in Hatch End in 1961, and after a short honeymoon in Grasmere, Lake District, immediately left for Tobruk, Libya, where Allan was doing his national service as a doctor at RAF El Adem. The pilots were keen to impress the Doc, and he had many cockpit rides, notably in a Hawker Hunter, which he always fondly remembered. A tax-free blue Ford Anglia arrived from Dagenham: his first car. In 1963, well sun-tanned from the African sunshine, they returned to the UK, driving the Anglia from Sicily to Harpenden, gathering stories along the way. Daphne was forbidden from climbing the Tower of Pisa, as she was expecting and it might fall over! Back in England, the garage wanted to know why the Anglia was full of desert sand! Allan’s next posting was to RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall, and they moved into the married quarters that is now the Watergate Bay Hotel. The Tower of Pisa is still standing, and I climbed it in 2018, sending Allan a postcard.
Allan left the RAF in 1965, remaining in the Reserves for some years and reaching the rank of Squadron Leader, which always gave the postman something to talk about.
Allan joined a GP practice in Halstead in 1965, and our family settled in “Catkins” in nearby Great Maplestead, deep in the Essex countryside. Tim, Jon and Rob were born in nearby Colchester. Allan enjoyed life as a country GP, and the surgery was a happy team. The phones were diverted to the Bull pub on Friday afternoons, where Allan was known for winning crisp eating competitions, and Daphne looked at her watch while cooking dinner, muttering about the Bull. The boys were growing up in the countryside, exploring the fields, watching tractors, tobogganing and singing in the village church choir, where Allan read the lesson. Holidays organised by Allan took us to Dawlish, Sheringham, Pevensey, Padstow and Aberdaron.
In 1976 Allan & Daphne decided that a move was needed to put us four boys through a good comprehensive school. After a lengthy search, Camberley was chosen, and Allan settled into a new GP practice. The boys knew there was a good chance dad’s patients were watching out for us and keeping an eye on their daughters. At home, Allan excelled at DIY, rewiring the house, building climbing frames and maintaining cars. Holidays in Dawlish continued, with the six of us squeezing into a green Saab. Somehow Allan stayed patient with four boys fighting in the back, but once on the way to Harpenden he stopped a mile from our grandparents’ house and ordered Tim and I to walk the last bit.
Daphne sadly passed away in 1979. Allan married again in 1980 – Judith, who had been a friend of Daphne’s and was a district nurse. We unexpectedly had sisters – Kirsten & Meryl. Allan quickly adapted to life with six children, girls, driving a horsebox around the country, including regular trips to Moreton Morrell College near here, with Meryl. He even relented on having a dog – Maybe – “maybe we’ll have a dog, maybe we won’t” – who became a firm friend for years to come. After successfully steering us all through our teenage years, Allan and Judith separated in 1990.
Allan’s final marriage was to Diana, a retired teacher, in 1993. He retired as a GP in 1995, and they moved to Bookham the following year. Allan volunteered at the National Trust’s Polesden Lacey estate for the next fifteen years, doing gardens and hedges, while Diana played the piano and sang in several choirs. Nine grandchildren arrived: Sarah, Stephen, Emily, Harriet, Alice, Katie, Alistair, Charlie and Lucy. Allan and Diana flew in Concorde, sailed on the Hurtigruten and visited Tim, Jane, Sarah and Stephen in Germany. Diana passed away in 2014.
The final chapter in Allan’s life begun in 2015 when he moved to Harbury. For the following five years, he was a regular at the Supermarket, Coop, Wednesday Walks, village cinema, All Saints Church, Hilltop Farm and the Lighthorne Cafe. His particular favourite place was Charlecote, where we explored every inch of the grounds, lunched in the Orangery and made friends with the regular swans. Always he was in his Rohans and trade-mark cap. It was my pleasure to regularly spend time with him again and to hear stories of his youth, many of which I hadn’t heard before. Days out with me usually involved steam trains, and we travelled as far away as Edinburgh, Bridgnorth, Great Maplestead, Bury St Edmunds, Pinner, London, Duxford, Cosford and Durham. One of our best day trips was to the Army Training Centre to see Stephen pass off at Pirbright in 2018 and follow Allan leading the parents in a marching exercise round the parade ground – skills learnt some seventy years earlier at Merchant Taylors’.
Dementia was taking hold but he soldiered on, continuing to visit Charlecote with one of us every few days and returning to Harbury for rock cakes. Dementia had a few advantages though – after a lifetime of disliking curry he forgot this and suddenly took a liking to it. When he couldn’t decide, he would always say “I’ll have a bit of both” – such as custard and ice cream.
In 2020 my brothers and I took Allan on a full dining steam train trip over the Settle & Carlisle Railway, and the next day he took up residence in Galanos House. Covid gave us a few challenges – “virus, what virus, what nonsense” he would say. At Christmas last year, he went to “historic” Warwick Castle to watch his grandchildren ice skating and was the star of our annual family Gibbmas lunch. He continued to visit Charlecote with us until July. We are all immensely grateful to the team at the British Legion’s Galanos House for looking after him, entertaining him and making him comfortable, especially in his final weeks.
Christopher Gibb