Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/279

 efforts to procure several drugs for the use of the medical department received special commendation from the court of directors. In 1847 he was promoted to the more important post of conservator of forests in the Bombay presidency, and for fourteen years he rendered invaluable service to the government in this capacity. Among other qualifications he possessed an iron constitution, which enabled him, in the discharge of his duties, to penetrate and to live in jungles which would have been fatal to most Europeans. His reports were collected and published by the government, and on his retirement in 1860 he received from the governor in council a public acknowledgment of his unremitting zeal, and of the beneficial results which the measures conducted under his direction had secured to the state. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society on 19 April 1853, and died on 16 Jan. 1867. His works were: 1. ‘Forest Reports, Bombay Presidency,’ Bombay, 1849–1855, 8vo. 2. ‘Handbook to the Forests of the Bombay Presidency,’ Bombay, 1863, 8vo. 3. ‘Bombay Flora,’ ed. by N. A. Dalzell, Bombay, 1861, 8vo. He also edited Hove's ‘Tours for Scientific Research’ from a manuscript in the Banksian Library, Bombay, 1855, 8vo.

[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1866–7, p. 33.] 

GIBSON, ALEXANDER CRAIG (1813–1874), antiquary, born at Harrington, Cumberland, on 17 March 1813, was the eldest son of Joseph Gibson, a native of that place, by his wife Mary Stuart Craig, who was of a Moffat family. He served his time to the practice of medicine in Whitehaven, and after studying at Edinburgh began his professional duties at Branthwaite and Ullock in his native county, where he remained about two years, removing to Coniston in 1843. Here he married in May 1844 Sarah, daughter of John Bowman of Hoadyood in Lamplugh. In 1849 he removed to Hawkshead, but in 1857, finding the work too heavy, settled at Bebington in Cheshire, where he remained in practice until his failing health compelled him to retire in 1872. Gibson was from his youth a contributor to newspapers. His first separate book, ‘The Old Man, or Ravings and Ramblings round Coniston’ (Kendal, 1849, 12mo), had already been printed in chapters in the ‘Kendal Mercury.’ It was an attempt to carry out a suggestion of Professor Wilson (Christopher North) that each locality in the Lake district should be carefully described by one well acquainted with it. The book went through several editions. About the same time he contributed to ‘Tait's Magazine’ a ballad in the Annandale dialect, ‘The Lockerbie Lycke.’ This he reprinted in his volume entitled ‘The Folk-speech of Cumberland and some Districts adjacent, being Short Stories and Rhymes in the Dialect of the West Border Counties’ (Carlisle, 1869, 12mo, 2nd ed. 1873). This work has much interest from Gibson's intimate acquaintance with the dialect of the district, and from his keen sense of the humour of the dales-folk. He contributed largely to the ‘Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire’ and other antiquarian associations. He was also author of ‘The Geology of the Lake Country’ in Miss Martineau's ‘Guide;’ and of numerous articles in medical and other periodicals. He was F.S.A., M.R.C.S. Engl. 1846, L.S.A. 1855, and L.M. Edinb. (Univ. Edinb.). He died at Bebington on 12 June 1874.

[Whitehaven News, 18 June 1874; Medical Directory, 1871; private information.] 

GIBSON, DAVID COOKE (1827–1856), artist and poet, born at Edinburgh 4 March 1827, was the son of a portrait-painter who died early of consumption, leaving a widow, David, and a daughter. After four years at the Edinburgh High School, he was admitted to the Board of Trustees' Academy. He passed through the ornamental class under Charles Heath Wilson, studied the collection of casts from the antique under Sir William Allan, and afterwards the colour class and life class under Thomas Duncan. Before he was seventeen years of age he was the chief support of his mother and sister, resigning all chance of a college career to devote himself to portrait-painting. His mother, Ann Gibson, died soon after September 1844, and his sister on 2 Dec. 1845 of consumption. Gibson had inherited the same disease, and the insinuation that his constitution was broken by vice is absolutely false. It is supported by a perversion of his dying words; his life was perfectly pure, though he was a social favourite, fond of dancing, an excellent mimic, eminently handsome and graceful, though diminutive in figure. In January 1846 he obtained three prizes at the Trustees' Academy. A month later two of his small pictures were badly hung at the Royal Scottish Academy, and he imprudently asked to withdraw one of these. He made a tour to London, Belgium, and Paris, studying in the great galleries. His copy of Vandyck's ‘Charles I’ was bought by Sir Edwin Landseer after Gibson's death. Returning to Edinburgh he worked hard at portraits. He removed to London in April 1852. At this time he wrote an immense quantity of easy and sometimes humorous verse. He had disappointments, was discontented, and