Agnes Giberne

Agnes Giberne (19 November 1845 – 20 August 1939) was a British novelist and scientific writer. Her fiction was typical of Victorian evangelical fiction with moral or religious themes for children. She also wrote books on science for young people, a handful of historical novels, and one well-regarded biography.

Biography

Giberne was born in Belgaum, India, the daughter of Captain Charles Giberne of the Bengal Native Infantry and Lydia Mary Wilson. Her ancestors were Huguenots from Languedoc in France where the "de Gibernes" lived in Chateau de Gibertain. Charles Giberne was from a large family. He had eight sisters and four brothers. Three of his brothers also served in India.

Giberne's parents married at St. Mary the Virgin, Walthamstow on 11 December 1838. It is not absolutely clear how many siblings Giberne had. The British Library's India Family History and Families in British India Society records show:

Mary Lydia Giberne, on 1 December 1840 at Karrack, Persian Gulf. She died at Ahymednuggar on 7 May 1842, aged 17 months.

Twins born on 21 January 1844 at Ahmednuggur, with the boy still-born and the girl, Helen Mary Giberne, surviving. However, she died in the first quarter of 1861, aged 17.

Agnes, born on 19 November 1845 at Belgaum.

Florence, born on 1 June 1847 at Poona. However, she died in Brighton on 5 September 1858, aged 11 years.

Eliza, born on 5 December 1848, at her maternal grandfather's at Worton House, Over-Warton, Oxfordshire. Died aged 79 on 22 February 1928.

By the time of the 1851 census, Lydia Mary was staying with her four surviving daughters at Beach in Weston-super-Mare with the Rector of Eyam in Derbyshire and his family. Charles Giberne had already been pensioned off and was staying at no 17, Beaufort, in Bath with two servants. By the time of the 1861 census, only two girls survived, Giberne and her sister Eliza.