behind the names
Fridtjof Nansen Explorer, scientist, diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Fridtjof Nansen is the only house inspiration not to be a Quaker. However this Norweigan, who saved the lives of countless thousands through his humanitarian work after the First World War, certainly displayed many Quaker attributes.
Born in 1861, Nansen became famous
for his exploration of the Arctic. In 1888 he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior and won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude during his North Pole expedition of 1893-96. In 1905, Fridtjof played a key part in the successful dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway and was
subsquently appointed as Norway’s first ambassador to the UK. World War I aroused in Fridtjof an abhorrence for the senseless slaughter of war. After the war he worked extensively with the repatriation of prisoners of war and refugees and with famine relief and it was for these humanitarian efforts that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 ... only the second Norwegian to gain this distinction.
Martha Gillett Quaker, housemaid to Richard Routh, the first head of Sibford School.
Martha Gillett is a local girl having been born in Shipston on Stour. Her father, Joseph, used to run Cobbs Bank in the town and her mother, Martha was the daughter of Joseph Gibbins, a prominent banker of Birmingham and
Swansea.The couple married in 1821, and Joseph used his marriage settlement to secure a partnership for himself in Whitehead’s Bank at Shipston on Stour. In December 1823 Martha, their eldest child, was born.
The Gilletts were active Quakers in Banbury and other local meetings.
They were involved in various philanthropic activities and helped set up clothing clubs and soup kitchens in hard times. They were also concerned with Quaker education and Joseph Gillett sat on the committee set up in 1839 for the purpose of founding a school. Various sites were inspected and in 1841 the Manor House at Sibford Ferris was bought for £1,200, the money being provided by the Gilletts. Martha, keen to help, scrubbed the floors to get the Manor ready for the first boarders to arrive and continued to act as housemaid to Richard Routh, Sibford’s head, during the early years of the school. In 1851, at the age of 28, Martha married lawyer Joseph Braithwaite. The couple had one son, William.
Elizabeth Fry Quaker, prison reformer and philanthropist.
Elizabeth Gurney was born in 1780 and is perhaps the most recognisable of the four house inspirations as, since 2002, she has been the face of the English £5 note.
Elizabeth was born into a
Quaker banking family and in 1800 married Joseph Fry, another Quaker, and member of the chocolate making dynasty. The couple went on to have eight children. From a young age Elizabeth
devoted her energies to helping those in need. She collected old clothes for the poor, visited the sick, and set up a Sunday School in her house to teach local children to read. However, she is perhaps best
known for her dedication to prison reform. After visiting London’s notorious Newgate prison in 1813 she became not just the UK’s most important woman penal reformer, but also Europe’s chief campaigner for inmates’ rights.
The Sibfordian / 25
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