Chartism was a working class movement for political reform in Britain between 1838 and 1848. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was the first mass working class labour movement in the world. "Chartism" is the umbrella name for numerous poorly-coordinated local groups, often named "Working Men's Association," articulating grievances in many cities from 1837. Its peak activity came in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It began among skilled artisans in small shops, such as shoemakers, printers, and tailors. The movement was more aggressive in areas with many distressed handloom workers, such as in Lancashire and the Midlands. It began as a petition movement which tried to mobilize "moral force", but soon attracted men who advocated strikes and violence, such as Feargus O'Connor. One faction issued the "People's Charter" in 1838 and it was widely adopted by the movement. The People's Charter called for six basic reforms to make the political system more democratic:

1. Universal male suffrage;
2. A secret ballot;
3. No property qualification for members of Parliament;
4. Pay members of Parliament (so poor men could serve);
5. Constituencies of equal size;
6. Annual elections for Parliament.

Eventually, the first five goals were achieved, but that happened long after Chartism was a spent force.

Chartism flourished in hard times, and faded during prosperity. Political elites saw the movement as dangerous and refused to negotiate with it or deal with its demands. The government permanently crushed the movement in 1848. The movement produced no immediate reforms, but it did attract the attention of the working class, which was not allowed to vote. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as a new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society.^[1][2]

The Great Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common, London in 1848.

Origin[link]

Chartism followed earlier Radical movements, such as the Friends of the People Society and the Birmingham Political Union which demanded a widening of the franchise, and came after the passing of the Reform Act 1832, which gave the vote to a section of the male middle classes, but not to the working class which was then, because of social and industrial conditions, emerging from artisan and labouring classes. Many Radicals made speeches asserting the betrayal of the working class and the sacrificing of their interests by the misconduct of the government, in conjunction with this model.

Chartism included a wide range of organisations. Hence it can be seen as not so much a movement as an era in popular politics in Britain. Dorothy Thompson defined the movement as the time when "thousands of working people considered that their problems could be solved by the political organisation of the country."^[3]

Press[link]

Some 120 local newspapers were important to the movement, for their news, editorials, announcements, poetry and (especially in 1848) reports on international developments. They reached upwards of a million readers (and listeners).^[4] The Poor Man's Guardian in the 1830s, edited by Henry Hetherington dealt with questions of class solidarity, universal suffrage, property, and temperance, and opposed the Reform Act of 1832, The paper explored the rhetoric of violence versus non-violence, or what its writers referred to as moral versus physical force.^[5] The Northern Star was influential between 1837 and 1852 as a mouthpiece for Feargus O'Connor. Its peak circulation was 50,000 copies in 1839; like other Chartist papers it was often read aloud in workers' circles.^[6] The papers often discussed economic issues, such as the trade union movement, grievance of labor forces, employment opportunities, reduction of credit, results of outflow of gold, movements of interest rates and the long-term outlook for artisans. The editors denounced imperialism and condemned the First Opium War (1839-42), arguing the free traders' claims of the civilizing and pacifying influences of free trade was demonstrably bogus.^[7]

People's Charter of 1838[link]

In 1837, six Members of Parliament and six working men, including William Lovett, (from the London Working Men's Association, set up in 1836) formed a committee, which then published the People's Charter in 1838. This stipulated the six main aims of the movement as:^[8]

1. A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for crime.
2. The secret ballot. - To protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.
3. No property qualification for members of Parliament - thus enabling the constituencies to return the man of their choice, be he rich or poor.
4. Payment of members, thus enabling an honest tradesman, working man, or other person, to serve a constituency, when taken from his business to attend to the interests of the Country.
5. Equal Constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing small constituencies to swamp the votes of large ones.
6. Annual parliaments, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since though a constituency might be bought once in seven years (even with the ballot), no purse could buy a constituency (under a system of universal suffrage) in each ensuing twelve-month; and since members, when elected for a year only, would not be able to defy and betray their constituents as now.

The first wave[link]

Chartist riot

When these demands were first published in May, 1838, they received a lukewarm response from Northern Star's Feargus O'Connor and other Radicals, being seen as too moderate (Thompson, 1984, p. 58). But it soon became clear that the charter had struck a chord among common people. A large meeting was held on Kersal Moor, Kersal near Salford, Lancashire on 24 September 1838 which attracted a large crowd to listen to speakers from all over the country. Speaking in favour of universal suffrage Joseph Rayner Stephens was quoted as saying that Chartism was a "knife and fork, a bread and cheese question"^[9]

John Bates, an activist, recalled:

There were [radical] associations all over the county, but there was a great lack of cohesion. One wanted the ballot, another manhood suffrage and so on... The radicals were without unity of aim and method, and there was but little hope of accomplishing anything. When, however, the People's Charter was drawn up... clearly defining the urgent demands of the working class, we felt we had a real bond of union; and so transformed our Radical Association into local Chartist centres..."^[10]

The movement organised a convention of 50 to facilitate the presentation of the petition. This met in London from February, 1839 until May, when it moved to Birmingham. Though they took pains to keep within the law, the more radical activists were able to see it as the embryo of an alternative parliament^[11]. The convention called for a number of "ulterior measures" which ranged from calling on their supporters to withdraw their money from saving banks to a call for a "Sacred Month" (in effect, a general strike). Meetings were held around the country and in June, 1839 a large petition was presented to the House of Commons. Parliament, by a large majority, voted not even to hear the petitioners. When the petition was refused, many advocated the widespread use of force as the only means of attaining their aims.

Newport Rising[link]

Dramatisation of the trial of the Chartists at Shire Hall, Monmouth, including background information.

Several outbreaks of violence ensued, leading to several arrests and trials. One of the leaders of the movement, John Frost, on trial for treason, claimed in his defence that he had toured his territory of industrial Wales urging people not to break the law, although he was himself guilty of using language that some might interpret as being a call to arms. Frost's attitudes and stance, often seen as ambivalent, after setbacks and violence including loss of life, led another Chartist to describe Frost as putting 'a sword in my hand and a rope around my neck'.^[12] Nevertheless, Frost had placed himself in the vanguard of the Chartist movement by 1839. With the Charter petition rejected by Parliament and another prominent Chartist, Henry Vincent, arrested in the summer of 1839 for making inflammatory speeches, the physical force Chartists started organising. As summer turned to autumn the political movement became a front for a military organisation - drilling, arming, training. Secret cells were set up, covert meetings were held in the Chartist Caves at Llangynidyr and weapons were manufactured as the Chartists armed themselves. Behind closed doors and in pub back rooms plans were drawn up for a mass protest.

On November 4th 1839 Frost led a several thousand marchers through South Wales to the Westgate Hotel, Newport, Monmouthshire where there was a confrontation. Some have suggested that the roots of this confrontation lay in Frost's frequent personal conflicts with various influential members of the local establishment; others, that Chartist leaders were expecting the Chartists to seize the town, preventing the mail reaching London and triggering a national uprising: Frost and other Chartist leaders did not agree on the course of action adopted.

The result of the Newport Rising was a disaster for Chartism. The hotel was occupied not only by the representatives of the town's merchant classes and the local squirearchy, but by sixty or more armed soldiers. A brief, violent, and bloody battle ensued. Shots were fired by both sides, although most contemporaries agree that the soldiers holding the building had vastly superior firepower. The Chartists did manage to enter the building temporarily, but were forced to retreat in disarray: twenty were killed, another fifty wounded.

Testimonies exist from contemporaries, such as the Yorkshire Chartist Ben Wilson, that Newport was to have been the signal for a national uprising if successful. Older histories suggested that Chartism slipped into a period of internal division after Newport. In fact the movement was remarkably buoyant (and remained so until late 1842). Initially, while the majority of Chartists, under the leadership of Feargus O'Connor, concentrated on petitioning for Frost, Williams and Jones to be pardoned, significant minorities in Sheffield, East London and Bradford planned their own risings in response. Samuel Holberry led an aborted rising in Sheffield on 12 January; police action thwarted a major disturbance in the East End of London on the 14th, and on 26 January a few hundred Bradford Chartists staged a rising in the hope of precipitating a domino effect across the country.^[13]

1842: Chartism's biggest petition and 'the General Strike'[link]

'1842 was the year in which more energy was hurled against the authorities than in any other of the 19th century'.^[14] In early May, 1842, a further petition, of over three million signatures, was submitted, which was yet again rejected by Parliament. The Northern Star commented on the rejection:

Three and half millions have quietly, orderly, soberly, peaceably but firmly asked of their rulers to do justice; and their rulers have turned a deaf ear to that protest. Three and a half millions of people have asked permission to detail their wrongs, and enforce their claims for RIGHT, and the 'House' has resolved they should not be heard! Three and a half millions of the slave-class have holden out the olive branch of peace to the enfranchised and privileged classes and sought for a firm and compact union, on the principle of EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW; and the enfranchised and privileged have refused to enter into a treaty! The same class is to be a slave class still. The mark and brand of inferiority is not to be removed. The assumption of inferiority is still to be maintained. The people are not to be free.^[15]

The depression of 1841–1842 led to a wave of strikes in which Chartist activists were in the forefront, and demands for the charter were included alongside economic demands. Workers went on strike in 14 English and 8 Scottish counties, principally in the Midlands, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Typically strikers resolved to cease work until wages were increased 'until the People's charter becomes the Law of the Land'. How far these strikes were directly Chartist in inspiration 'was then, as now, a subject of much controversy'.^[16] The Leeds Mercury headlined them 'The Chartist Insurrection', but suspicion also hung over the Anti-Corn Law League that manufacturers among its members deliberately closed mills to stir-up unrest. At the time these disputes were collectively known as the Plug Plot as in many cases, protesters removed the plugs from steam boilers powering industry to prevent their use. In the 20th century the term General Strike was increasingly used.^[17] Some modern historians prefer the description 'strike wave'.^[18] Unrest began in the Potteries of Staffordshire in early August, spreading north to Cheshire and Lancashire (where at Manchester a meeting of the Chartist national executive belatedly endorsed the strikes on the 16th). The strikes had begun spreading in Scotland and West Yorkshire from the 13th. Though the government deployed soldiers to swiftly suppress violence, it was the practical problems in sustaining an indefinite stoppage that ultimately defeated the strikers. The drift back to work began on 19 August. Only Lancashire and Cheshire were still strike-bound by September, the Manchester powerloom weavers being the last to return to work on 26 September.^[19]

Several Chartist leaders, including Feargus O'Connor, George Julian Harney, and Thomas Cooper were arrested, along with nearly 1,500 others. Around 250 were sentenced to prison for major offences, ranging from 16 months to 21 years; fifty more were sentenced to transportation to Australia. However, the government's most ambitious prosecution, personally led by the Attorney General, of O'Connor and 57 others (including almost all Chartism's national executive) failed: none were convicted of the serious charges, and those found guilty of minor offences were never actually sentenced. Cooper alone of the national Chartist leadership was convicted (at a different trial), having been involved in events leading up to the strikes in north Staffordshire, where violence was especially serious.

The mid-Forties[link]

Despite this second set of arrests, Chartist activity continued. Beginning in 1843, O'Connor suggested that the land contained the solution to workers' problems. This idea evolved into the Chartist Co-Operative Land Company, later called the National Land Company. Workers would buy shares in the company, and the company would use those funds to purchase estates that would be subdivided into 2, 3, and 4 acre (8,000, 12,400 and 16,000 m²) lots. Between 1844 and 1848, five estates were purchased, subdivided, and built on, and then settled by lucky shareholders, who were chosen by lot. Unfortunately for O'Connor, in 1848 a Select Committee was appointed by Parliament to investigate the financial viability of the scheme, and it was ordered that it be shut down. Cottages built by the Chartist Land Company are still standing and inhabited today in Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire^[20] and on the outskirts of London. Rosedene, a Chartist cottage in Dodford, Worcestershire, is owned and maintained by the National Trust, and is open to visitors by appointment.^[21]

The Chartists also stood on forty occasions in general elections, starting with a by-election in Ayrshire in 1838. There were concerted campaigns in the election of 1841 and election of 1847, when O'Connor was elected for Nottingham. More commonly, Chartist candidates participated in the open meetings, called hustings, that were the first stage of an election. They frequently won the show of hands at the hustings, but then withdrew from the poll to expose the deeply undemocratic nature of the electoral system. This is what Harney did in a widely reported challenge against Lord Palmerston in Tiverton, Devon in 1847. The last Chartist challenge at a parliamentary poll took place at Ripon in 1859.^[22]

Chartism and Christianity[link]

During this period the Christian churches in Britain held "that it was 'wrong for a Christian to meddle in political matters....All of the denominations were particularly careful to disavow any political affiliation and he who was the least concerned with the 'affairs of this world' was considered the most saintly and worthy of emulation."^[23] This was at odds with many Christian Chartists for whom Christianity was "above all practical, something that must be carried into every walk of life. Furthermore there was no possibility of divorcing it from political science."^[24] Rev. William Hill wrote in the Northern Star "We are commanded…to love our neighbors as ourselves…this command is universal in its application, whether as friend, Christian or citizen. A man may be devout as a Christian…but if as a citizen he claims rights for himself he refuses to confer upon others, he fails to fulfill the precept of Christ".^[25] The conflicts between these two views led many like Rev. Joseph Barker to see Britain’s churches as pointless. "I have no faith in church organizations," he explained. "I believe it my duty to be a man; to live and move in the world at large; to battle with evil wherever I see it, and to aim at the annihilation of all corrupt institutions and at the establishment of all good, and generous, and useful institutions in their places."^[26] To further this idea some Christian Chartist Churches were formed where Christianity and radical politics were combined and considered inseparable. Pamphlets made the point and vast audiences came to hear lectures upon the same themes by the likes of Rev. J.R. Stephens who was highly influential in the movement. Political preachers thus came into prominence.^[27]

The Chartists were especially harsh on the Church of England for unequal distribution of the state funds it received resulting in some bishops and higher dignitaries having grossly larger incomes than other clergy. This state of affairs led some Chartists to question the very idea of a state sponsored church, leading them to call for an absolute separation of church and state.^[28]

Facing severe prosecution in 1839 Chartists took to attending services at churches they held in contempt to display their numerical strength and express their dissatisfaction. Often they would forewarn the preacher and demand that he preach from texts they believed supported their cause, such as 2 Thessalonians 3:10 and 2 Timothy 2:6. In response the set upon ministers would often preach the need to focus on things spiritual and not material, and of meekness and obedience to authority citing such works as Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17.^[29]

The 1848 petition[link]

Poster advertising the Great Chartist Meeting.

With Europe ablaze in the Revolutions of 1848, the time seemed at hand to revive the movement, focusing on moral suasion, petitions and mass meetings. The result was a failure--opponents showed that many of the signatures on the petitions were forged, and the mass meetings petered out. Chartism faded away, with the main thrust of work class mobilization moving toward the trade union movement.

On 10 April 1848, a new Chartist Convention organised a mass meeting on Kennington Common, which would form a procession to present another petition to Parliament. The estimate of the number of attendees varies depending on the source (O'Connor said 300,000; the government, 15,000; The Observer newspaper suggested 50,000). Historians say 150,000.^[30] The government was well aware that the Chartists had no intention of staging an uprising. However, there were fears that a revolution would start spontaneously and the authorities were intent upon a large-scale display of force both to counter this threat and if possible stamp out Chartism in a year of revolutions across continental Europe. 100,000 special constables were recruited to bolster the police force.^[31] In any case, the meeting was peaceful. However the military had threatened to intervene if the Chartists made any attempt to cross the Thames.

In a separate incident, rioters in Manchester attempted to storm the hated workhouse. A pitched battle resulted with Chartists fighting the police, eventually the mob was broken up, but rioters roamed the streets of Manchester for three days.

In Bingley, Yorkshire, a group of ‘physical force’ Chartists led by Isaac Ickeringill were involved in a huge fracas at the local magistrates court and later prosecuted for rescuing two of their compatriots from the police.^[32]

The original plan of the Chartists, if the petition was ignored, was to create a separate national assembly and press the Queen to dissolve parliament until the charter was introduced into law. However the Chartists were plagued with indecision, and the national assembly eventually dissolved itself, claiming lack of support.

The petition O'Connor presented to Parliament was claimed to have only 1,957,496 signatures – far short of the 5,706,000 he had stated and many of which were discovered to be forgeries (some of the false signatories included Queen Victoria, Mr Punch and 'Pugnose'). But many people were illiterate, and did not know how to write their own signatures. Though O'Connor mishandled the defence of the petition in the House of Commons, Chartism survived the episode. The high-point of its threat to the establishment in 1848 came not in on April 10 but in June.^[33] The banning of public meetings, and new legislation on sedition and treason (rushed through Parliament immediately after April 10) drove a significant number of Chartists (including the black Londoner, William Cuffay) to prepare an uprising in August.

O'Connor has been accused of destroying the credibility of Chartism. This was a common theme in histories of the movement until the 1970s.^[34] Since the 1980s, however, historians (notably Dorothy Thompson) have emphasised the indispensable contribution O'Connor made to Chartism. Further, she argues that the causes of the movement's decline are too complex to be blamed on one man.^[35] Historians have recently shown interest in Chartism after 1848: the final National Convention, for example was held in 1858.^[36]

Legacy[link]

Plaque commemorating Samuel Holberry in Sheffield's Peace Gardens

Eventual reforms[link]

Chartism did not directly generate any reforms, and did not create a national organisation, but it opened the door for new men and new groups to see the need for reform and the methods and pitfalls of organising activists.

Political elites feared the Chartists in the 1830s and 1840s as a dangerous threat to national stability.^[37] In the Chartist stronghold of Manchester, the reform movement undermined the political power of the old Tory-Anglican elite that had controlled civic affairs. However the reformers of the Manchester Political Union were themselves factionalized among middle-class modernizers (often the readers of the Manchester Guardian), Chartists, and an independent working class movement.^[38]

After 1848, as the movement faded, its demands appeared less threatening and were gradually enacted by other reformers.^[39] After 1848 middle class parliamentary Radicals continued to press for universal franchise, and were joined by some supporters of the Anti-Corn Law League, with John Bright and the Reform League agitating in the country. The parliamentary Radicals joined with a section of the Whig Party and the anti-protectionist Tory Peelites to form the Liberal Party by 1859. Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative government carried through the Reform Act 1867, doubling the electorate in the process. Furthermore, the Ballot Act of 1872 introduced the secret ballot. Only the last of the Chartist aims – annual Parliaments – never came to pass.

Colonies[link]

Chartism was also an important influence in some British colonies. Some leaders had been transported to Australia, where they spread their gospel, In 1854 Chartist demands were put forward by the miners at the Eureka Stockade on the gold fields at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Within one year of the military suppression of the Eureka revolt, all the demands, except annual parliaments, had been met.^[40] In the African colonies after 1920 there were occasional appearances of a 'colonial chartism' which called for improved welfare, upgraded education, freedom of speech and greater political representation for natives.^[41]

See also[link]

• The Peterloo Massacre of 1819
• The Newport Rising of 1839
• The General Strike of 1842
• The Eureka Rebellion of 1854, in Australia
• William Cuffay
• Ernest Charles Jones
• Richard Spurr
• Alfred Walton
• George Odger

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Allen, Joan, and Owen R. Ashton. Papers for the People: A Study of the Chartist Press (2005)
• Briggs, Asa. Chartist Studies (1959)
• Chase, Malcolm (2007). Chartism: A New History, Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-6087-8 (online preview)
• Charlton, John (1997). The Chartists. The First National Workers' Movement, Pluto Press, ISBN 0-7453-1183-0 (online preview)
• Faulkner, Harold Underwood. Chartism and the churches: a study in democracy (1916) online edition
• Goodway, David (1982). London Chartism, 1838-1848, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-89364-X (online preview)
• Hovell, Mark (1918) The Chartist Movement (full text)
• Jones, David J. V. Chartism and the Chartists (1975), a standard scholarly survey
• Pickering, Paul (2008) Feargus O'Connor: A Political Life ISBN 978-0-85036-561-0
• Rosenblatt, Frank F. (1916) The Chartist Movement online edition
• Rowe, D.J. (1969) "The Chartist Convention and the Regions," Economic History Review, Vol. 22 Issue 1, pp 58-74, analysis of survey of 23 towns done by Chartists in 1839
• Royle, Edward. (1996) Chartism (Longmans, 3rd edition) ISBN 05822980805; a standard scholarly survey
• Rude, George. (1964) The Crowd in History, Serif, ISBN 978-1-897959-47-3; chapter on Chartism, pp 179 - 195. Marxist analysis.

• Sanders, Michael. (2001) "Poetic Agency: Metonymy and Metaphor in Chartist Poetry 1838-1852," Victorian Poetry, 39#2 pp. 111-135 doi:10.1353/vp.2001.0019
• Saville, John (1987) 1848: The British State and the Chartist Movement, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052139656
• Thompson, Dorothy (1984). The Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 0-394-72474-7; (reprinted Breviary Stuff Publications, 2012 ISBN 978-0-9570005-3-7); a standard scholarly survey
• Ward, J. T. Chartism (1974), a standard scholarly survey

Historiography[link]

• Claeys, Gregory. "The Triumph of Class-Conscious Reformism in British Radicalism, 1790-1860" Historical Journal (1983) 26#4 pp. 969-985 in JSTOR
• Taylor, Miles. "Rethinking the chartists: Searching for synthesis in the historiography of chartism," Historical Journal, (1996), 39#2 pp 479-95 in JSTOR

Primary sources[link]

• Frost, Thomas, ed. (1880). Forty Years' Recollections: Literary and Political, Samson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.
• Mather, Frederick C. ed. (1980) Chartism and society: an anthology of documents 319pp
• Scheckner, Peter, ed. (1989). An Anthology of Chartist Poetry. Poetry of the British Working Class, 1830s-1850s, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0-8386-3345-5 (online preview)

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works on the topic: Chartism

Resources

• The-six-points from Chartist ancestors
• Chartist Ancestors Extensive resources dealing with Chartism and listing many of those involved in it. Includes a full personal and place name index to Malcolm Chase's Chartism: A New History (2007)
• British Library page including an image of the original charter
• Punch Series on "Great Chartist Demonstrations"
• Spartacus index on Chartism
• Victorian Web - The Chartists
• Ursula Stange: Annotated Bibliography on Chartism

Articles

• Illustrated London News, April 15, 1848
• Left-wing atmosphere article about the Chartist armed uprising in Newport in 1839
• How the police foiled a planned armed Chartist uprising, 1848

Charles Kingsley
Born	(1819-06-12)12 June 1819 Holne, Devon, England
Died	23 January 1875(1875-01-23) (aged 55) Eversley, Hampshire, England
Occupation	Clergyman, University professor, Historian, Writer (novelist)
Nationality	English
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Period	19th century
Genres	Children's Literature

Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was an English priest of the Church of England, university professor, historian and novelist, particularly associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire.

Life and character[link]

Kingsley was born in Holne, Devon, the second son of the Reverend Charles Kingsley and his wife Mary. His brother, Henry Kingsley, also became a novelist. He spent his childhood in Clovelly, Devon and Barnack, Northamptonshire and was educated at Helston Grammar School^[1] before studying at King's College London, and the University of Cambridge. Charles entered Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1838, and graduated in 1842.^[2] He chose to pursue a ministry in the church. From 1844, he was rector of Eversley in Hampshire, and in 1860, he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge.

In 1869 Kingsley resigned his professorship and, from 1870 to 1873, was a canon of Chester Cathedral. While in Chester he founded the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art, which played an important part in the establishment of the Grosvenor Museum.^[3] In 1872 he accepted the Presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Institute and became its 19th President.^[4] Kingsley died in 1875 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in Eversley.

Kingsley sat on the 1866 Edward Eyre Defence Committee along with Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Charles Dickens and Alfred Lord Tennyson, where he supported Jamaican Governor Edward Eyre's brutal suppression of the Morant Bay Rebellion against the Jamaica Committee.

One of his daughters, Mary St Leger Kingsley, became known as a novelist under the pseudonym of "Lucas Malet".

Kingsley's life was written by his widow in 1877, entitled Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of his Life.

Kingsley also received letters from Thomas Huxley in 1860 and later in 1863, discussing Huxley's early ideas on agnosticism.

Influences and works[link]

Kingsley

Kingsley's interest in history is shown in several of his writings, including The Heroes (1856), a children's book about Greek mythology, and several historical novels, of which the best known are Hypatia (1853), Hereward the Wake (1865) and Westward Ho! (1855).

He was sympathetic to the idea of evolution and was one of the first to praise Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species. He had been sent an advance review copy and in his response of 18 November 1859 (four days before the book went on sale) stated that he had "long since, from watching the crossing of domesticated animals and plants, learnt to disbelieve the dogma of the permanence of species."^[5] Darwin added an edited version of Kingsley's closing remarks to the next edition of his book, stating that "A celebrated author and divine has written to me that 'he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws'."^[6] When a heated dispute lasting three years developed over human evolution, Kingsley gently satirised the debate as the Great Hippocampus Question.

His concern for social reform is illustrated in his classic, The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby (1863), a tale about a chimney sweep, which retained its popularity well into the 20th century. The story mentions the main protagonists in the scientific debate over human origins, rearranging his earlier satire as the "great hippopotamus test". The book won a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1963.

As a novelist his chief power lay in his descriptive faculties. The descriptions of South American scenery in Westward Ho!, of the Egyptian desert in Hypatia, of the North Devon scenery in Two Years Ago, are brilliant; and the American scenery is even more vividly and more truthfully described when he had seen it only by the eye of his imagination than in his work At Last, which was written after he had visited the tropics. His sympathy with children taught him how to secure their interests. His version of the old Greek stories entitled The Heroes, and Water-babies and Madam How and Lady Why, in which he deals with popular natural history, take high rank among books for children. Kingsley was influenced by Frederick Denison Maurice, and was close to many Victorian thinkers and writers, including the Scottish writer George MacDonald.

Kingsley wrote poetry and political articles, as well as several volumes of sermons. His argument, in print, with John Henry Newman, accusing him of untruthfulness and deceit, prompted the latter to write his Apologia Pro Vita Sua. He also wrote a preface to the 1859 edition of Henry Brooke's book The Fool of Quality in which he defends their shared belief in universal salvation.^[7]

Kingsley coined the term pteridomania in his 1855 book Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore.^[8]

Legacy[link]

A statue of Charles Kingsley at Bideford, Devon (UK)

Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho! led to the founding of a town by the same name (the only place name in England which contains an exclamation mark) and inspired the construction of the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway. A hotel in Westward Ho! was named for him and it was opened by him.

A hotel opened in 1897 in Bloomsbury, London, was named after Kingsley. The hotel was founded by teetotallers who admired Kingsley for his political views and his ideas on social reform. It still exists, and is now known as The Kingsley by Thistle.^[9]

Bibliography[link]

• Saint's Tragedy, a drama
• Alton Locke, a novel (1849)
• Twenty-five Village Sermons (1849)
• Cheap Clothes and Nasty (1850)
• Yeast, a novel (1851)
• Phaeton, or Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers (1852)
• Sermons on National Subjects (1st series, 1852)
• Hypatia, a novel (1853)
• Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore (1855)
• Sermons on National Subjects (2nd series, 1854)
• Alexandria and her Schools (I854)
• Westward Ho!, a novel (1855)
• Sermons for the Times (1855)
• The Heroes, Greek fairy tales (1856)
• Two Years Ago, a novel (1857)
• Andromeda and other Poems (1858)
• The Good News of God, sermons (1859)
• Miscellanies (1859)
• Limits of Exact Science applied to History (Inaugural lectures, 1860)
• Town and Country Sermons (1861)
• Sermons on the Pentateuch (1863)
• The Water-Babies (1863)
• The Roman and the Teuton (1864)
• David and other Sermons (1866)
• Hereward the Wake: "last of the English", a novel (London: Macmillan, 1866)
• The Ancient Régime (Lectures at the Royal Institution, 1867)
• Water of Life and other Sermons (1867)
• The Hermits (1869)
• Madam How and Lady Why (1869)
• At Last: a Christmas in the West Indies (1871)
• Town Geology (1872)
• Discipline and other Sermons (1872)
• Prose Idylls (1873)
• Plays and Puritans (1873)
• Health and Education (1874)
• Westminster Sermons (1874)
• Lectures delivered in America (1875)

Notes[link]

1. ^ ODNB article by Norman Vance, ‘Kingsley, Charles (1819–1875)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 [1], accessed 13 April 2008.
2. ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Kingsley, Charles". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
3. ^ "Information Sheet: Charles Kingsley". Cheshire West and Chester. http://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/visiting/museums/grosvenor_museum/information_sheets/charles_kingsley.aspx. Retrieved 19 April 2010. 
4. ^ Presidents of the BMI, BMI, nd (c.2005)
5. ^ Darwin 1887, p. 287.
6. ^ Darwin 1860, p. 481.
7. ^ Thomas Whittemore. The Modern History of Universalism: Extending from the Epoch of the Reformation to the Present Time. (1860). p. 378.
8. ^ Peter D. A. Boyd's Pteridomania
9. ^ The Kingsley by Thistle

References[link]

• Darwin, Charles (1860), On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, London: John Murray, http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F376&viewtype=text&pageseq=1  2nd edition. Retrieved on 20 July 2007
• Darwin, Charles (1887), Darwin, F, ed., The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter., London: John Murray, http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=39003&pageno=1  (The Autobiography of Charles Darwin) Retrieved on 20 July 2007

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charles Kingsley

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Charles Kingsley

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Charles Kingsley

• Famous Quotes by Charles Kingsley
• A painted bollard based on a water fairy unveiled in Whitchurch, Hampshire (photo within article)
• Works by Charles Kingsley at Internet Archive (scanned books)
• Works by Charles Kingsley at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)
• Charles Kingsley at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Index entry for Charles Kingsley at Poets' Corner
• Anonymous (1873). Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day. Illustrated by Frederick Waddy. London: Tinsley Brothers. pp. 90–92. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cartoon_portraits_and_biographical_sketches_of_men_of_the_day/Canon_Kingsley. Retrieved 6 January 2011. 

Robin Gibb
Robin Gibb at the meet-and-greet after the Dubai Jazz Festival on 1 March 2008
Background information
Birth name	Robin Hugh Gibb
Born	(1949-12-22)22 December 1949 Douglas, Isle of Man
Died	20 May 2012(2012-05-20) (aged 62) London, England
Genres	Pop Soft rock Adult contemporary Disco[1] Synthpop[2][3][4][5]
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano, violin, guitar, bass
Years active	1958–2012
Labels	Polydor, RSO, Mirage
Associated acts	Bee Gees
Website	Official website

Robin Hugh Gibb, CBE (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012) was a singer and songwriter, best known as a member of the Bee Gees, co-founded with his fraternal twin brother Maurice and older brother Barry. Their younger brother Andy was also a singer.

Born in the Isle of Man to English parents, the family later moved to Manchester before settling in Brisbane, Australia. Gibb began his career as part of the family trio and when the group found their first success they returned to the United Kingdom where they achieved worldwide fame. In 2004, the Bee Gees received their CBEs from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace for their "contribution to music".^[6] With record sales estimated in excess of 200 million units, the Bee Gees became one of the most successful pop groups of all time.^[7] Music historian Paul Gambaccini described Gibb as "one of the major figures in the history of British music" and "one of the best white soul voices ever".^[8]

After a career spanning six decades, Gibb last performed on stage in February 2012 supporting injured British servicemen and women at a charity concert at the London Palladium.^[9] On 20 May 2012, Gibb died at the age of 62 from liver and kidney failure.^[10]

Early life[link]

Born to Barbara and Hugh Gibb^[11] (d. 1992)^[12] on the Isle of Man, Robin was the fraternal twin of Maurice Gibb, and the older of the two by 35 minutes. The third-born of five children, Gibb had one older sister, Lesley (b. 1945), and three brothers: Barry (b. 1946), fraternal twin Maurice (1949–2003), and Andy (1958–1988).

Gibb was the subject of an edition of the BBC genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? first broadcast on 21 September 2011. The programme revealed that Gibb's paternal great-grandfather was born into poverty in Paisley and went on to become a decorated soldier and his paternal great-grandmother was a midwife.^[13]

Gibb's mother Barbara was born in Worsley, Salford, and in 1953 the family returned to Manchester, England.^[14] The family lived on Keppel Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and it was here that the young Gibb brothers sang together and performed in local theatres.^[14] In late 1958, the family moved to Brisbane, Australia. The family travelled to Australia on the same ship as Australian musician Red Symons. The brothers' music careers began in Australia and flourished when they returned to England in 1967.^[15]

Solo career[link]

Traditionally, Gibb's role in the Bee Gees was lead singer, for which he vied with Barry during the group's first period of British success in the late 1960s. This rivalry eventually prompted Gibb to leave the group and begin a solo career.^{[citation needed]} The final irritant was when his song "Lamplight" was relegated to the B-side of Barry's song "First of May". Meanwhile, there were rumours during this period that Gibb was dealing with drug abuse problems, leading Gibb's parents to allegedly threaten legal action to make him a ward of court (the UK age of majority at that time being 21, and Gibb was only 19).^[16]

In his solo career, Gibb was initially successful with a number 2 UK hit, "Saved by the Bell", which sold over one million copies and received a gold disc.^[17] However, Gibb's first solo album, Robin's Reign, was less successful and he soon found that being a solo artist was unsatisfying. Maurice played bass guitar on the song "Mother and Jack", but was subsequently removed from the project by producer Robert Stigwood. Despite having almost completed a second solo album, Sing Slowly Sisters, Gibb reunited with his brothers, who then revived the Bee Gees. The group came back on a high note, reaching No. 3 on the US charts with the song "Lonely Days" in 1970. In 1971, the Bee Gees had their first US No.1 hit, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", but after that their popularity started to ebb.

In 1974, with new producer Arif Mardin, the Bee Gees reinvented themselves with the song "Blue-Eyed Soul". The group now entered their second period of phenomenal success in the disco-era late 1970s.^[18]

In 1978, Gibb performed on the Sesame Street Fever album for the Sesame Street children's TV program. He was one of the singers on the "Sesame Street Fever" title track, he sang a song called "Trash" for the character Oscar the Grouch, and spoke with Cookie Monster at the beginning of "C is for Cookie".

While continuing in the Bee Gees, Gibb also promoted his new solo career. During the 1980s, Gibb released three solo albums (How Old Are You?, Secret Agent, and Walls Have Eyes). These three albums were more successful in Europe than in the UK or US, with How Old Are You? spawning the hit single "Juliet". However, Gibb's 1984 single "Boys Do Fall in Love" did reach the Billboard Magazine top 40 list of hits. Gibb also recorded several extended versions of dance songs, including "Boys Do Fall in Love", "Secret Agent", "Like a Fool" and the rarest, "You Don't Say Us Anymore"; many of these extended versions were released to radio disc jockeys only.

On 27 January 2003, fifteen days after Maurice died, Gibb released a new solo album, Magnet in Germany on SPV GmbH, and worldwide shortly afterwards. Magnet featured the Bee Gees song "Wish You Were Here" (from the 1989 album One) in a new acoustic version. The lead single, "Please", had coincidental lyrics about "loss". After Maurice's death, Gibb and Barry again disbanded the Bee Gees; however, in late 2009, the two brothers announced that they would reform and perform again as the Bee Gees whenever they could. In recent years, Gibb sang the vocals to the opening titles to the British ITV show The Dame Edna Treatment.^[19]

On 18 May 2008, Gibb released the song "Alan Freeman Days" in tribute to the Australian DJ Alan Freeman. The song was issued as a download only track, although a promotional CD was issued by Academy Recordings. In December 2008, "Alan Freeman Days" was followed by another downloadable song titled "Wing and a Prayer", which shared the same name as a song from the 1989 One album. However, the new song was actually a reworking of the song, "Sing Slowly Sisters", that had remained unreleased since 1970.^[20] Later in December, Gibb issued another song, "Ellan Vannin (Home Coming Mix)", featuring the King William's College Choir from the Isle of Man. ("Ellan Vannin" is the Manx name for the Isle of Man.)

In 2008, Gibb completed a new solo album entitled 50 St. Catherine's Drive, but it was never released. However, in August 2009, a 50-second video clip of "Instant Love" from 50 St. Catherine's Drive appeared as a preview. "Instant Love" was a collaboration with Gibb's son Robin-John. A second version of "Instant Love" featuring Robin-John on vocals appeared in a short film called Bloodtype: The Search in which Robin-John appeared.^[21]

Gibb and Robin-John also wrote the score for The Titanic Requiem, recorded by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2012 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.^[22] Gibb was due to attend the piece's premier on 10 April 2012 at the Central Hall, Westminster, London but his failing health kept him away.^[23]

In 2010, Gibb was also a guest mentor on the Australian version of The X Factor, alongside TV host Kyle Sandilands, actress/singer Natalie Imbruglia, and singers Ronan Keating and Guy Sebastian.^[24]

Collaborations[link]

In August 2003, Gibb announced the release of a new single of "My Lover's Prayer", a song first recorded by the Bee Gees in 1997, with vocals by Gibb and singers Wanya Morris and Lance Bass. "My Lover's Prayer" was played on the radio, but was never actually released. In October 2003, Gibb recorded a second version of this song as a duet with singer Alistair Griffin, a runner-up in the UK television program Fame Academy on which Gibb had appeared as a judge. In January 2004, the new "My Lover's Prayer" was released in the UK as a double A side CD single. It eventually reached number 5 in the UK music charts.

In January 2005, Gibb joined his brother Barry and several other artists under the name One World Project to record a charity single in aid of Asian tsunami relief, titled "Grief Never Grows Old". Other artists who performed on the single included Boy George, Steve Winwood, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Sir Cliff Richard, Bill Wyman, America, Kenny Jones, Chicago, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Russell Watson and Davy Spillane.

In June 2005, Gibb joined X Factor runner up band G4 at a sell-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, singing the Bee Gees song "First of May". In December 2005, a recording of this performance was released as part of a double A side single, credited as "G4 feat Robin Gibb" together with G4's cover version of the Johnny Mathis song "When a Child is Born". "First of May" also appeared on the platinum selling album G4 & Friends, which reached number 6 in the UK album charts.

In November 2006, Gibb released an album of Christmas carols called Robin Gibb – My Favourite Carols, backed by The Serlo Consort, a London choir. The Serlo Consort. The album also featured a new song by Gibb called "Mother of Love", which was released in Europe as a download single. The song was inspired by Maurice and was Gibb's first new composition since Maurice died. Gibb donated all royalties from "Mother of Love" to the "Janki Foundation for Global Healthcare", and dedicated the song to Dadi Janki, the organisation's spiritual leader. Gibb dedicated the album to his mother, Barbara Gibb. Robin Gibb – My Favourite Carols has a bonus DVD disc titled A Personal Christmas Moment with Robin Gibb.

Gibb went back to the top of the UK charts in 2009 when he collaborated with singers Ruth Jones, Rob Brydon, and Tom Jones on a new version of "Islands in the Stream", written by Gibb, Barry, and Maurice. The new version, inspired by the BBC comedy TV show Gavin & Stacey, was created to benefit the charity Comic Relief.^[25]

In September 2011, Gibb recorded the Bee Gees classic "I've Gotta Get a Message to You" with British Army men The Soldiers for a charity single in the UK, the video for which was produced by Vintage TV.^[26]

Concerts[link]

Robin Gibb performs on the Dutch television network AVRO programme TopPop in 1973

Gibb performing in 2009

In late 2004, Gibb embarked on a solo tour of Germany, Russia and Asia, with singer Alistair Griffin as the opening act. On his return to the UK, Gibb released a CD and DVD of live recordings from the German leg of the tour, backed by the Frankfurt Neue Philharmonic Orchestra of Frankfurt, Germany. In 2005, Gibb made a solo tour of Latin America.

On 20 February 2006, Gibb and Barry performed at a concert for the Diabetes Research Institute of the University of Miami in Hollywood, Florida. This was their first joint performance since Maurice's death.^[27] In March 2006, Gibb announced plans for more solo concerts in Shanghai, China and Portugal. In May 2006, Gibb took part in the Prince's Trust 30th Birthday Concert at the Tower of London along with Barry. They sang three songs: "Jive Talkin'", "To Love Somebody" and "You Should Be Dancing". In September 2006, Gibb performed "Stayin' Alive" at the Miss World 2006 contest finals in Warsaw, Poland. In November 2006, Gibb performed a solo concert, entitled "Bee Gees – Greatest Hits", at the Araneta Coliseum in Manila, Philippines.

Gibb marked his return to his birthplace by playing a concert at the Isle of Man TT festival in 2007. Gibb donated all of his share of the money from this concert to the children's ward at Noble's Hospital, Isle of Man, and invited all emergency service staff and marshals for the TT to attend for free.

On 8 September 2007, Gibb performed a concert in Salt Lake City, Utah at EnergySolutions Arena for the Nu Skin Enterprises Convention, singing a set of Bee Gees hits. On 25 October 2007, Gibb performed a concert at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria and sang the Bee Gees' most famous songs. On 25 October 2008, to mark the 30th anniversary of the song "Saturday Night Fever" topping the UK charts, Gibb performed with special guests including Ronan Keating, Stephen Gateley, Sam Sparro, Sharleen Spiteri, Gabriella Cilmi and Bryn Christopher at the London music festival BBC Electric Proms. In 2010, Gibb toured Australia with Bonnie Tyler as his supporting guest.^[28] Together they performed at Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.^[29] On 30 January 2012, Gibb announced his intention to appear on stage at the Coming Home Concert at the London Palladium in February to benefit British soldiers returning home from Afghanistan.^[30][31] It would be his last performance on stage.^[9]

Personal life[link]

In 1968 Gibb married Molly Hullis, a secretary in Robert Stigwood's organisation. The couple had both survived the Hither Green rail crash, which killed 49 people on 5 November 1967.^[32] They had two children together, Spencer (b. 1972) and Melissa (b. 1974). The couple divorced in 1980 after years of living separate lives, with Gibb almost permanently in the U.S. and Hullis remaining in the UK.^[33]

Gibb's second marriage, from 1985 until his death,^[34] was to Dwina Murphy Gibb, an author and artist. She is interested in the Druidry religion and is a follower of the neo-Hindu Brahma Kumaris movement. The couple has a son, Robin-John (known as RJ (b. 1983). Gibb and his wife divided their time between their homes in Peel, Isle of Man, their mansion in Miami, Florida (which was as of November 2011 up for sale^[35]) and their main residence in Thame, Oxfordshire.^[36]

On 10 March 1988, Andy Gibb died in Oxford, England, of myocarditis.^[37] On 12 January 2003, Maurice Gibb died in Miami Beach, Florida of complications from a twisted intestine.

On 4 November 2008, he had a fourth child, Snow Evelyn Robin Juliet Gibb, born out of a private relationship with a housekeeper,^[38] Claire Yang.^[34]

Gibb was "an ardent vegan and teetotaller".^[39]

In politics, Gibb was a vocal supporter of the British Labour Party and launched a rally in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, ahead of the 2005 General Election.^[40] He was a close friend of the former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was criticised for staying over at Gibb's Miami mansion during Christmas 2006.^[41] In 2008 Gibb publicly stated that he continued to get on "like a house on fire" with Blair, and claimed that the then Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown regularly listened to the Bee Gees.^[42] "He listens to our music every day. Gordon likes our music and I like Gordon," he told The Times.^[43] In a tribute upon his death, longtime friend Tony Blair said: "Robin was not only an exceptional and extraordinary musician and songwriter, he was a highly intelligent, interested and committed human being. He was a great friend with a wonderful open and fertile mind and a student of history and politics."^[44][45]

Health problems and death[link]

On 14 August 2010, while performing in Belgium, Gibb began to feel abdominal pains. On 18 August, he was rushed to a hospital in Oxford, England and underwent emergency surgery for a blocked intestine, the same condition that killed Maurice.^[46] Gibb recovered and returned to perform concerts in New Zealand and Australia. During this time, Gibb was also involved in promoting fund-raising for the memorial dedicated to RAF Bomber Command in Green Park, London. Gibb also wrote The Titanic Requiem with his son Robin-John, which was recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in 2012.^[47] Gibb continued to make television appearances and other events following his surgery, but in April 2011 he was forced by health problems to cancel his tour of Brazil.^[46] Another concert in Paris was cancelled in October 2011. On 14 October, Gibb was due to perform the charity single with The Soldiers, but was again rushed to hospital with severe abdominal pains.^[48] On 18 October, following his release from the hospital, Gibb appeared on ITV's The Alan Titchmarsh Show looking gaunt and frail.^[49]

On 27 October 2011, Gibb cancelled an appearance only minutes before he was due to perform at the Poppy Appeal Concert in London.^[50] Later the same week however, Gibb was seen in London and quoted as saying he felt "absolutely great".^[51]

In November 2011, Gibb said he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer which metastasised to his liver several months earlier. A source close to the singer stated that his condition was "not good" and that his family rushed to the UK to be with him.^[52] In an interview published in The Mail on Sunday on 22 January 2012, Gibb spoke for the first time of the cancer.

"For more than 18 months, I had lived with an inflammation of the colon; then I was diagnosed with colon cancer, which spread to the liver. I have undergone chemotherapy, however, and the results — to quote my doctor — have been 'spectacular'. It’s taken a toll, naturally, but the strange thing is that I've never felt seriously ill. I’ve mostly felt great. There have been many false claims around, which I'd like to dispel. I am not and have never been 'at death's door'. Nor do I have a team of alternative doctors working on my health. That's not true, although I'm not averse to healthy remedies for any illness. I feel they can go together with conventional medicine. I do eat health foods and drink herbal teas made for me by Dwina, my wife and RJ's mother. Other than that, I am under the care of Dr. Peter Harper at The London Clinic".^[53]

In March 2012, Gibb was hospitalised for intestinal surgery and cancelled scheduled appearances while recovering.^[54][55] In April, however, he contracted pneumonia and fell into a coma.^[56][57] Although he came out of his coma later in April,^[58] his colorectal cancer had advanced^[59] and he died suddenly in London on 20 May 2012 at the age of 62 from liver and kidney failure.^[8][60][61]

His funeral will be held near his home in Thame, Oxfordshire, and a memorial service will take place at St Paul's Cathedral, London.^[62]

Acclaim and recognition[link]

Gibb among Jamie Oliver, Larry Hagman and others at Laureates 2010

In 1994, Gibb was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California. In 1997, the Bee Gees were inducted as a group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, US. At the 1997 BRIT Awards held in Earls Court, London on 24 February, the Bee Gees received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.^[63]

In 2002, Gibb was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours, along with his brothers Maurice and Barry. However, the official presentation ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London was delayed until 2004 due to Maurice's death.^[6]

In May 2004, Gibb and his brother Barry both received honorary doctorates of music from The University of Manchester, England.^[64] In 2005, Gibb received the Steiger Award (Miner Award) in Bochum, Germany for accomplishments in the arts. On 10 July 2009, both Gibb and Barry were made Freemen of the Borough of Douglas, Isle of Man. The award was also bestowed posthumously on Maurice, therefore confirming the freedom of the town of their birth to Gibb, Barry and Maurice.^[65]

The radio and television presenter, Paul Gambaccini has stated that the Bee Gees were "second only to Lennon and McCartney as the most successful songwriting unit in British popular music", and recognised Gibb as "one of the major figures in the history of British music [and] one of the best white soul voices ever".^[8] Gibb was a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).^[66]

Discography[link]

Gibb's entire song catalogue is published by Universal Music Publishing Group.

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robin Gibb

• Robin Gibb's personal website
• Robin Gibb's MySpace page
• Gibb Songs Magnet by Joseph Brennan
• Words & Music, Fans Of The Brothers Gibb
• Promo Video, My Lover's Prayer
• Robin Gibb at the Internet Movie Database