Stanley Gibbons

Perhaps stamp collecting isn't the hobby that it once was. When I was a boy in the 1960s, every kid that I knew collected stamps. Times change and perhaps the name of Stanley Gibbons isn't as well known to younger people as it would have once been. Edward Stanley Gibbons was born in Plymouth on the 21st June, 1840, coincidently in the same year that Britain issued the Penny Black. His father, William, owned a chemist shop in Treville Street. Stanley had an interest in stamps from when he was a boy and joined his father's business after the death of his eldest brother.His father encouraged his stamp collecting hobby and a stamp desk was set up within the chemist's shop. Between 1861 and 1871, Stanley Gibbons built up his own stamp business which proved to be very popular. On the death of his father in 1867, he took over the chemist shop but found himself heavily involved in the business of buying and selling stamps which took most of his time and eventually, the chemist shop was sold. After he married, in 1872, he relocated his business to London where he employed women to separate sheets of stamps in the evening. He was reported to the local authorities by neighbours who were suspicious of all of the young women who attended his address and surprisingly, this was investigated although they found nothing untoward. By the time Gibbon's first wife died in 1887, the business was a great success. He later married his housemaid, Margaret Casey in 1890 before selling his stamp business to Charles Phillips for £25,000. Soon after, he retired. Gibbons married for a third time after the death of his second wife in 1901. He travelled extensively all over the world for pleasure and to purchase stamps. Gibbons third wife died in 1905 and he married for a fourth time but this wife died in 1908 and he married, amazingly, for a fifth time in 1909. They are believed to have separated before his death because he makes no mention of her in his will and leaves his entire estate 'to a dear friend, Mabel Hedgecoe'. Gibbons died on the 17th February 1913. His string of wives, most of whom died relatively young, has given rumour to some wrong doing on his part but this has never been proved. Stanley Gibbons is nowadays seen as a successful business and perhaps the person behind it is somewhat forgotten. However, almost one hundred years after his death, his name is, and will probably always be, forever linked with the immense, worldwide hobby of stamp collecting.