MAY, 1940.
Individuals Roundabout
THOMAS ST. GEORGE GILBERT
"South Africa is the finest country in the world," declared Tommy Gilbert, his keen eyes lighting with enthusiasm as he conjured up for me a vast country of many rivers, rugged kopjes, wild and ferocious beasts, fast-gliding snakes, and brave warlike natives.
It was the first time I had met the tall, shy, kindly man who is now Commandant of the Bermuda Labour Service Corps. It is not easy for him to talf about himself, and not until he touched on the subject of South Africa and his soldiering days as a young man in the Boer War was he really at ease, talking freely about the country as if it were a living thing.
Thomas St. George Gilbert was born at the Cut, St. George's, in 1874. His parents were Henry Hunt Gilbert, M.C.P., and Caroline Gilbert (nee Trott). The name Gilbert is found in Devonshire, England, and probably dates back to Norman days when it was Guilbert. A branch of the family was in Bermuda as early as 1630, settled in Devoshire, later removing to the Western parishes, until now the family home of the Gilberts is Springfield in Somerset. The Gilberts left their mark on the parishes they lived in. Many fine homes were built by them, and it was a Gilbert who gave the land on which was built Christ Church, Warwick, the oldest Presbyterian Church in the Western Hemisphere.
As a young boy, Tommy Gilbert lived in St. George's, sharing his youthful with William Eugene Meyer, now mayor of the town, and Louis Mowbray, now curator of the Government Aquarium. The three were inseperable friends. When Tommy was thirteen, his family moved to Somerset. For the next two years he went to old Heathcote Hill School in Sandy's. Geography he was fond of, maps fascinated him, particularly maps of Africa. He was always a good cricketer, and popular among his teammates who included H.J. Tucker, J.R. Conyers, G.A. Conyers and A.W. West.
At eighteen he made his first sea voyage, in the Sante Marie, a Bermuda-built schooner, and ran into a hurricane. Later he joined the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, and in 1897 was present along with five other members at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, where he was decorated with the Jubilee Medal.
In 1900 came his great opportunityto see South Africa. The Boer War had started, and Tommy Gilbert with another Bermudian, Clifford Peniston, set out for South Africa and adventure. Tomy joined the Natal Carbineers, and as a trooper in the Corps he served under General Hilyard whose son, as Governor of Bermuda, many years later was to decorate him with the King George VI Coronation Medal.
During the early part of the War, Tomy served as a scout. He saw many of his fellow scouts wounded and killed, and attributes his own escape to good luck and a certain instinct which always told him when to "lie low." He contracted the dreaded enteric fever which reduced the robust giant (he is 6 feet, 4 inches) to an emaciated scarecrow. It took five days by wagon to get to the nearest field hospital, and six of the eight men in his wagon died on the way.
In 1901 he was gazeted Lieutenant in the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles. His most active service was in the Transvaal and Free States. During his time on the battlefronts of Zululand, Swaziland, and Basutoland he learned to speak the native tongues so well (they are all similar, he says) that his services were at times required by the Intelligence Department in collecting certain information about the enemy, duties which took him through such old battlegrounds as Rorke's Drift and Blood River, scenes of bloody conflicts between betwen Briton, Boer and Zulu.
South African days are undoubtedly the big adventure in Tomy Gilbert's life. Even now, when talking about his experiences, he forgets his shyness, his innate reserve; he forgets that he doesn't like to talk about himself, and becomes, for him, almost animated. His grey eyes shine as he digs up one memory after another. The Africa he saw on the maps at school has taken life, become virtually part of him, like his firm voice or his slow smile.
The war is over, both Tommy Gilbert and Clifford Peniston returned home to Bermuda -via England, where they stopped to be present at the Coronation of King Edward VII.
When they returned to Bermuda they were decorated with the Queen and King's South African Medals, and were offered commissions in the regular army, but Africa was "in their blood," and a year later they set sail for the Dark Continent again. Thet were going to the gold mines, and by curious chance they went over in a troop ship carrying Boer prisoners home.
This time for eighteen months Tomy Gilbert stayed in Africa. Then the importation of Chinese labourers to work the mines forced him and many other young Britishers to return to their homes in England and the Colonies. He returned to Bermuda by way of South America -"a wonderful country, but it can't come up to Africa!"
Back home again, he re-entered the lumber business, in partnership with his former employer, Mr. Henry Cox Outerbridge.
The following year, in 1905, he married Miss Kate Fowle, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Fowle of Bushy Park, Somerset. Of this marriage there are two daughters, Mrs. H.G. de Wolf of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Miss Frances Gilbert, whose engagement to Pay Sub-Lieut. D. Woolf, R.N., was recently announced. Their home is Somerville on beautiful Mangrove Bay in somerset.
In 1909, Mr. Gilbert joined the staff of the Customs Office, where he remained for thirty years, giving valuable service which will not soon be forgotten in the important Government department. He retired in 1939.
If, in his contemplative moments he had planned a quiet life in placid little Somerset after his retirement, his castle-in-the-air has escaped.......(remaindder missing).