OBITUARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22119, 27 May 1935, Page 9

OBITUARY

LORD HUNSDON LONDON MERCHANT-BANKER LONDON, May 24 The death has occurred of Lord Hunsdon. Herbert Cokryne Gibbs, head of a London firm of merchant-bankers and Ist Baron Hunsdon, was born in May, 1854, and educated at Winchester School and Trinity College. His father was the first Baron Aldenliam, Governor of the Bank of England, and M.P. for the City of London. He decided on a city career and in 1881 became a partner in the mercantile firm of Anthony Gibbs and Sons. He also took an active part in politics, and was made chairman of the City of London Conservative Association. During the war he was a member of commissions concerned with economic problems, and was Director of Purchases to the Allied Nitrate of Soda Committee. Afterward he was made chairman of the Public Works Loan Board.

After the war there was a very great demand for houses and for capital to build them. Tlie applications for loans became numerous and pressing, and the chairmanship of the board was a highly responsible post. In 1923, deceased was raised to the peerage as Baron Hunsdon, a name taken from his estate in Hertfordshire. Lord Hunsdon was a director of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, chairman of the Rio de Janeiro City Improvements Company, and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.