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| aaa aaa 'Called to Serve' The stories of the ordinands of St Faith's, Great Crosby |
Henry Lionel Gibbs
From Scotland
to Southport
One of many men and women from our church who
became an
ordinand is Henry Lionel Gibbs. He would
appear to be the oldest ordained clerics with
associations to St. Faith’s,
having been ordained in 1914. The link
with us is not yet clear, other than
he was named in a 1980 article by Dorothy Carter as
one of several St. Faith’s
men ordained to the ministry. There
appears to be no other mention of him, as far as I am
aware, in our church
records. There
is a confirmation recorded
of a Gertrude Lilian Gibbs in 1920, but I have not
been able to find a birth
record of her, living in the district.
Henry Lionel Gibbs
was born in 1885 to Henry and
Lilian Gibbs, the second of five children.
His father was a master builder.
Successive census returns indicate an
improvement in the families
fortunes. Between
1881 to 1891 the
family were living at Bevington Hill, a road in the
Scotland ward of Liverpool and
noted for its densely populated poor housing.
Parts of this road still exist but sadly none
of the housing, following
the widescale obliteration of the area in the 1960’s
with construction of the
Kingsway Tunnel.
By 1901 the family were
living just a roar from Liverpool’s Anfield ground at
30 Rockfield Road,
Anfield. The census of 1901 recorded Henry, aged 16,
as a ‘pupil teacher’.
In the years between 1901 to 1911, Henry
completed his
studies at Liverpool University, gaining a B.Sc. in 1906
and an M.Sc. in
Mathematics in 1907. He undertook his ministerial
training at Wycliffe Hall,
Oxford.
By 1911, census records show Henry’s occupation
as a
schoolteacher for Liverpool Education Committee. He was still
living with his family, but they
had now moved to a large and elegant property in Geneva
Road, not far from
Newsham Park in the Fairfield district of Liverpool. With a nod to
their roots, the house was
named ‘Bevington’.
Henry married Ada Marie Newton on the 7th
July
1912 at St. John the Divine, Fairfield, Lancashire.
In 1914 he was
ordained Deacon at the recently
completed Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral by the
Bishop of Liverpool and
licensed to Christ Church, Kensington, West Derby.
In 1917 he was licensed as assistant curate to
St. Thomas’s,
Wavertree. On
the 18th
August, 1921, he was instituted as Vicar of St.
Catharine’s Church, Scholes,
Wigan. There
is a photograph of him
standing next to the church football team – perhaps
living so close to Anfield
in his youth stood him in good stead and gave him an
appreciation of football.
His next appointment
continued the football connection. Between
1925 to 1935 he served as vicar to St. Luke the
Evangelist, Walton on the Hill. This church
is situated right next door to
Everton’s football ground, Goodison Park. It’s
impossible to say if he had allegiance to
either club but I’m sure the roar of the crowd could
be heard quite clearly at
St. Luke’s! In 1936 a newspaper article reported him
as the Diocesan Inspector
of Schools in Liverpool.
In 1936 he became vicar to
St. Philip's Church, Southport and at their Diamond
Jubilee in 1940 he was
appointed as a Canon Diocesan of Liverpool Cathedral.
The Reverend Henry Lionel
Gibbs died aged 67 on the 6th March 1952,
survived by his wife and
daughter.
Research by John Woodley
October 15th, 2015
