My friend Joan Gibson, who has died aged 97, was an inspirational physical education teacher who had a talent for working with her hands.
She was born in Cardiff, the daughter of William Gibson, a builder, and his wife, Margaret Norie, a post office worker. After leaving St Swithun’s school, Winchester, where she boarded, she enrolled at a Bedford college as a physical training instructor.
Her first job was at Llangollen during the second world war, when she lived with pupils in one of the school’s several houses, without electricity and reliant on candles. She slept on the balcony on hot nights, mowed the tennis courts and cycled into town on her afternoons off, her bike laden with tennis rackets or lacrosse sticks to be restrung.
After the war, she moved to Bedford Physical Training College and subsequently Bedford high school in the town, where she remained until her retirement in 1972. Gibby, as she was known to generations of pupils there, was regarded as being strict but fair, setting high standards of behaviour.
But she also showed great kindness. This could be in small ways, such as giving apples and cheese to boarders who would otherwise get nothing to eat before bed after getting back from an away match or swimming. Former colleagues and pupils often turned to her for advice and support, becoming lifelong friends.
In retirement she moved to Eastbourne, where she swam in the sea most days from April to October. Here she had more time to pursue her lifelong love of dolls’ houses and miniatures, collecting and selling. She was immensely creative, making things from what most people would regard as rubbish.
She always had a supply of pipe cleaners with her, and used train journeys to make them into tiny teddy bears, her speciality, often eking out her pension by selling them to fellow passengers before she reached her destination.
Gibby disapproved strongly of slumping in front of a TV and never owned one. She had endless battles with the authorities who could never believe that her only television sets were the tiny ones in the more modern of her dolls’ houses. Friends cherished her as a beacon of sanity, kindness and support, and remember her endless capacity for love and kindness.
She is survived by her niece, two great-nephews and three great-great-nieces.
