GIBBS, HERBERT WILLIAM (1852-1940), public servant and artist, and CECILIA MAY
(1877-1969), author, were father and daughter. Herbert was born on 21 November
1852 at Alverstoke, Southampton, England, eldest of seven children of William
Gibbs, merchant, and his wife Eliza, née Emery. He was educated by his father (who
became a private tutor at Singleton, Sussex, about 1871), then at a grammar school
until, at 14, he lost an eye, and finally by Rev. Edward Cole, rector of St
Peter's, Brighton. In 1870 he joined the civil service, working as a clerk in the
General Post Office in 1877, and studied art at the School of Design, South
Kensington, and with Philip Sydney Holland. On 24 October 1874 at Sydenham, Kent,
he married Cecilia Rogers, a fellow art-student.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
May Gibbs emigrated with her family to South Australia in 1881. She studied art in London, but returned to live in Perth, where she worked for the Western Mail. She moved to Sydney in 1913. Gibbs became known for her witty illustrations and her work was in demand. The first in her famous bush babies series, Gumnut Babies, was published in 1916. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie followed in 1918. Her cartoon strip, 'Bib and Bub', appeared in the Sydney Sunday News from 1925, while a second strip, 'Tiggy Touchwood', was published in the Sunday Sun under the pseudonym of Stan Cottman. May Gibbs was appointed MBE in 1955.
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Australian Women's Register
Creator of the famous tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, the Gumnut babies, Gibbs began her career as a cartoonist and hoped to be recognised as an exhibiting painter. She travelled to London whenever she could to study and improve her technique. Not especially social with other artists (although she did exhibit regularly), she would become better known for enchanting the public with her charming illustrated works.
cartoonist and illustrator, was born on 17 January 1877 at Sydenham, Kent, England, only daughter of Cecilia, née Rogers, and Herbert William Gibbs, artist, cartoonist and public servant, who had married when both were art students. May arrived at Adelaide with her mother and brothers in the Hesperus on 31 October 1881, following her father who had come out in June. They moved to WA in 1885 and lived on a farm at Claremont until moving to Perth in 1889 where May ...
Flourished
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Design and Art Australia Online
May Gibbs (1877−1969) came to Australia at the age of four. Even as a child May drew and painted‚ encouraged by her parents. She studied art‚ both in Western Australia and in England‚ before settling in Sydney to follow a successful career as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Her most famous book‚ Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie‚ was published in 1918. Her bestselling series featuring the Gumnut babies‚ their friends and their foes‚ established an enduring mythology of the Australian bush for generations raised firmly on traditional European fairytales. In 1955‚ she received an MBE for her contribution to children’s literature.
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Libraries Australia
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