Name: Charles Keightley Gimson

▶Date of birth:  19 December 1860        Place of birth: Loughborough, Leicestershire

▶Father:  Charles Gimson     Mother: Ann Dewbery

▶Spouse(s):   Mary Ann Rebecca    Date(s) of marriage:  4Q 1887     Place(s) of marriage: Yarmouth, Norfolk

▶Occupation: Schoolmaster; Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Charles Keightley Gimson was experienced as a schoolmaster before he was ordained; in Cheltenham he taught for over twenty years at the Cheltenham Training College in St Paul’s. He was born in Loughborough in 1860, the youngest child of Charles Gimson, hosiery manufacturer (Gimson & Sons), of Loughborough, and his wife Ann (née Dewbery). At the time of the 1881 census he was lodging in Marlhill Parade North, Cheltenham; his career began in the education system, and he worked in Cheltenham as an Assistant Schoolmaster. After attending the Cheltenham Training College at St Paul’s (and through private study) he went to the University of London,  BA 1886. In 1887 he married Mary Ann Rebecca Dyson, in her hometown of Yarmouth; they had four daughters and two sons.

Gimson was appointed Headmaster of the small Barrow-on-Soar Grammar School in Leicestershire (which boasted about twenty boys as pupils) 1888-91. He was ordained Deacon in 1889, and Priest (both Peterborough) in 1890; in 1889 he was licensed Curate of Quorndon, Leicestershire 1889, and in 1890 became Curate of Holy Trinity, Loughborough until 1896, which overlapped for some of this time with his school work.

In 1900 he left Leicestershire to move to Cheltenham as a Lecturer at St Paul’s Training College, remaining there for over twenty years, until 1922; in 1901 he lived near Pittville at 5 Glenfall Terrace, and between 1905 and 1909 at 25 Clarence Square in Pittville; in 1911 he lived at Prescott, Hewlett Road, again near Pittville.

From 1922 until 1924 he obtained permission to officiate in the diocese of Gloucester, and was appointed Rector of Bradden, Towcester 1924-39, where he led a busy live within the community, preaching, lecturing, and chairing committees. In 1939 he returned to the school in  Barrow-on-Soar where he had been Headmaster for twelve years, in order to speak at the annual prize-giving, during which he collapsed and died, at the age of seventy-nine. His estate at death was sworn at over £1,635.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Glenfall Terrace, Cheltenham      Moved from Pittville to: Hewlett Road, Cheltenham

▶Date of death:  16 November 1939      Place of death: Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 15206

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden