Olive Frances Gibbs, DL (née Cox; 17 February 1918 – 28 September 1995) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician and

anti-nuclear The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, natio ...

weapons campaigner. Gibbs entered

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

politics in 1953 and became the second woman Lord Mayor of

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(the first was Florence Kathleen Lower). She served as Lord Mayor twice, in 1974–75 and 1981–82, stepping in the second time to replace a colleague who had died halfway through his term. She was also the first woman to chair

Oxfordshire County Council Oxfordshire County Council is the county council (upper-tier local authority) for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire in the South East of England. It is an elected body responsible for some local government services in the county, includ ...

. Her husband, Edmund (accountant and founder of an eponymous Oxfordshire firm) was also a councillor for some time. Gibbs chaired the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

between 1964 and 1967. She was made an

Honorary Freeman The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

both of the City of Oxford and of the

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. She was awarded

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...

's first-ever honorary degree in 1986 and was a Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire. Gibbs Crescent, a new street of social housing, was named after her, as was the Humanities building at Oxford Brookes (then Oxford Polytechnic). A blue plaque to Olive Gibbs was unveiled on her childhood home at Christ Church Old Buildings, St Thomas's, Oxford on 11 April 2015. A
oil portrait of Gibbs by P.G. Rose
is held by

, and reproduced in the

Art UK Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 220,000 paintings by more than 40,000 artists and is now expanding the digital collection t ...

catalogue.

References

* ''Our Olive: The Autobiography of Olive Gibbs'', Robert Dugdale, 1989 - *

External links

Olive Gibbs: Local politician and campaigner
— Oxfordshire Blue plaque awarded to Olive Gibbs 1918 births 1995 deaths Labour Party (UK) councillors People from Oxford Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists Members of Oxford City Council Members of Oxfordshire County Council Lord Mayors of Oxford Deputy Lieutenants of Oxfordshire Women mayors of places in England Women councillors in England {{England-mayor-stub

See also

References

External links