DEATH OF BARONET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20991, 30 September 1931, Page 12

DEATH OF BARONET.

SiR EDWARD OSBORNE-GIBBES EIGHTY YEARS IN- DOMINION. SERVICE TO EDUCATION. [BY TEI.KGIIAHH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION. J WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The death has occurred of Sir Edward Osborne-Gibbes, Bart., formerly UnderSecretary for Education, aged 81. Sir Edward held a baronetcy dating from the reign of George I.—created in tlio year 1774. He was horn in 1850. at Colchester, England, the eldest son of Sir Samuel Osborne-Gibbes, and was the third possessor of tho title. Sir Samuel came to New Zealand in 1850, settling in tho .Auckland district, and bcinp a member of the Legislative Council from 1855 to 1863. His son was educated at St. John's College, and in 1871 entered the Public Works Department, at the head of lice in Wellington, as one of its clerks, but was soon transferred to the Immigration Department. When the Education Department was created in 1877, on the passage of tho Act which ushered in tho present system of free, secular, and compulsory education, Sir Edward was made its first chief clerk, and later assistant, under secretary. In 1905 ho was appointed undersecretary, in succession to the lato Mr. George Hngben, and held the offices until his retirement on superannuation in 1916. A genial and unobtrusive gentleman, most at liotno in his library, Sir Edward was well known on the bowling greens of Wellington. In his early manhood, he was a cricketer, footballer and oarsman, and also took part in other forms of athletics. Freemasonry was one of his enthusiasms, and under tho English Constitution he held at one time tho office of deputy district grand master of tho District Grand Lodge of Wellington.