Background
Humphrey Gibbs was born on November 22, 1902, third son of Baron Hunsdon.
Humphrey Gibbs was born on November 22, 1902, third son of Baron Hunsdon.
Educated at Eton (where he was friendly with Sir Alec Douglas-Home) and Trinity College, Cambridge University. Emigrated to Rhodesia in 1928 and started farming at Bonisa Farm (Matabele for “Lovely View”) at Redbank, 20 miles from Bulawayo.
Entered Parliament in 1947 as MP for Wankie and sat quietly on the back benches as a United Party member. He gave up after one term and returned to farming. The verdict of the then Premier Sir Godfrey Huggins: “He was too honest a man to remain in politics for long.”
On accepting the appointment of Governor he assumed his functions were to be largely ceremonial. UDI changed that. He became a hostage in Government House, Salisbury, and a symbol of legality across the road from his neighbour the chief rebel, Premier Ian Smith. His official cars were removed and his African servants forbidden to work for him. The telephone was cut off and not reconnected until June 5, 1966.
His only escape was a visit to Gibraltar for the Anglo-Rhodesian negotiations aboard HMS Fearless from October 9 to 13, 1968. But he was an observer, not a negotiator. The ordeal of the lonely Governor ended when the Smith regime decided upon a republican constitution which had no place for a governor. On June 24, 1969 he announced he would resign. He flew to Britain at the invitation of the Queen and took formal leave of her as Governor on August 21, 1969, at Balmoral Castle, her Scottish home. The Queen invested him with the Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order and had him sworn in as a member of the Privy Council. On December 19, 1969, the British government announced the award to him of £66,000 for his “outstanding record of service to the Crown in Rhodesia”. At the request of Sir Humphrey, whose £8,500 a year salary was stopped by the Rhodesian government at UDI, the money went to his wife.
When the Pearce Commission was in Rhodesia testing the acceptability of the proposals for an independence settlement Sir Humphrey told them on February 16, 1972, that he believed Rhodesians should say “Yes”. He thought a “Yes” would keep the door open to improvements in the status of the Africans.