Margaret Skirving Gibb

Margaret Skirving Gibb (1877–1954) was a Scottish suffragette and chess player. She was involved in several suffragette activities including slashing a portrait of one of the founders of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 1914.

Margaret Skirving Gibb
Born1877 (1877)
Glasgow, Scotland
Died1954 (aged 76–77)
Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland
Known forSuffrage activism & chess

Involvement in the campaign for women's suffrage

In 1911 Gibb refused to partake in the census, along with her mother and the rest of the family.[1] In March 1914 Gibb was found guilty of striking a constable outside Holloway prison with a dog whip and sentenced to two months in Holloway.

After Emmeline Pankhurst's re-arrest in 1914, Gibb entered the National Portrait Gallery and slashed the portrait of one of gallery's founders, Thomas Carlyle by John Everett Milais.[2] She was sentenced to six months imprisonment.[3][4][5] During the reporting of this arrest, she is referred to as Ann Hunt, which she used as an alias. The portrait only went back on display a century later.[6] Following this attack security for women entering the National Portrait Gallery was tightened

She was one of a number of suffragettes photographed when Scotland Yard commissioned the undercover photography of militant suffragettes from 1913. The images were used to identify suffragettes attempting to enter public buildings such as museums and art galleries, where they might attempt to damage the objects.[7]

Family and life

Gibb was born and died in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Her father was Peter Walker Gibb, a fish merchant, and her mother was Margaret Skirving, founder of the Glasgow Ladies Chess Club 1905 and president of the club until her death in 1918. She was one of six siblings, one of whom was fellow suffragette Ellison Scotland Gibb. Ellison and Margaret were awarded the Hunger Strike medals.[1]

Chess career

In 1923, Gibb played, along with her sister, in the Glasgow Ladies' team that reached the final of the 1922-23 season's Spens Cup.[8]

References
  1. McGowan, Alan. "The Gibb Family Chess Players and Suffragettes". Chess Scotland. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  2. "Damaged portrait of Thomas Carlyle: 1914". Museum of London. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  3. "Birmingham Mail". 21 July 1914.
  4. "Suffrage Stories: 100 Years Ago Today – 17 July 1914: The National Portrait Gallery and Thomas Carlyle". Suffrage Stories. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  5. Fotheringham, Ann. "Thanks for the Memories: Glasgow's Votes for Women celebration at Mitchell". Evening Times. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  6. "A painting slashed by the Suffragettes is going back on display". Evening Standard. 29 January 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  7. "Museum of London | Free museum in London". Museum of London. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  8. "Chess Scotland". Chess Scotland. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
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