PAR- HOPE GIBBONS CELEBRATES HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY

Wanganui Chronicle, 5 October 1946, Page 4

PAR- HOPE GIBBONS CELEBRATES HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY

Mr. Hope Gibbons, well-know n New Zealand business man and former Mayor of Wanganui, celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday. He was the recipient of scores of congratulatory telegrams from all over the Dominion, and cables from the United Kingdom and the United States. A family reunion, attended by 25, was held yesterday at “Hikurangi.” Mr. Gibbons' residence at Wanganui East.

Coming to Wanganui in 1895, Mr. Gibbons became a director of many Wanganui companies and of the Colonial Motor Company, Wellington. Mr. Gibbons did much as a member of lhe Wanganui Beautifying Society and was Mayor from 1924 to 1927, during which term Gonville and Casllecliff were amalgamated with the Wanganui borough to become a city.

Up served on many other local bodies and bought the home of Mrs. A. G. Bignell, used as a hospital for convalescent soldiers during World War I. and gave it to the Government for use as a St. Helen’s Hospital. It was later renamed lhe Jessie Hope Gibbons Hospital and taken over by the Wanganui Hospital Board. Mr. Gibbons also presented the nine-acre site in Gonvil’e for a health camp.

PATRIOTIC WORK Mr. Gibbons was among the founders of the Wanganui-Waitotara Patriotic Association during the first war, and was awarded the M.B.E. for his services. In more recent times Mr. Gibbons was a prominent worker for the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1939 he was made a Commander of the Order, being invested In Wanganui by the then Governor-General, V’scount Galway. More than 100 congratulatory telegrams from ajl parts of New Zealand were received yesterday. They included a message from the GovernorGeneral. Si" Bernard Frevberg, V.C., Her Excellency. Lady Freyberg, the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) and from the mayors of Auckland (Mr. J. A. C. Allum). Wellington (Mr. Will Appleton), Christchurch (Mr. W. 11. Andrews), and Dunedin (Mr. D. C. Cameron).