Obituary: Kirsteen Gibb, teacher and benefactor

Kirsteen Gibb could probably be described as a combination of ES Benson’s Lucia and a rather upmarket version of Miss Jean Brodie. A well-bred teacher who was totally committed to her “gels”, she was elegant, cultured and a woman of clearly defined tastes whose family heritage encapsulated a fascinating snapshot of a vanished world.

Her mother had witnessed the tsar of Russia’s arrival at Leith Docks in 1896, gone on to study music in Dresden under the tutelage of one of Liszt’s pupils and gained an honours degree from Edinburgh University at a time of very few women graduates. Her father was a lawyer and Writer to the Signet. And though her own professional career was dedicated to one historic Edinburgh school, Miss Gibb’s heart belonged to another of the capital’s famous institutions.

A physical education and dance teacher at St Margaret’s for all her working life, she retained a deep affinity for her old alma mater, St George’s School for Girls, and was one of its most generous benefactors, donating the proceeds of the sale of one of her homes.

The eldest of three children to Robert Stirling Gibb and Claire Gladys Sturrock, she grew up in Trinity and followed in the footsteps of her mother to St George’s where Mrs Gibb, a talented musician, had been a pupil during the tenure of the school’s first headmistress, Miss Walker.

Founded in 1888, in a converted house in Melville Street, the school was the culmination of a long campaign by a group of women who had been denied access to university. Four years after it opened, Scottish universities finally did admit women and St George’s students were among the first female graduates from Edinburgh University.

Miss Gibb, a keen sportswoman and member of the school’s first XI hockey team, was educated at St George’s from 1929 to 1939. She went on to study at the Dunfermline College of Hygiene and Physical Education but her student years coincided with the Second World War and, when the building was commandeered by the navy, the college transferred to the Teacher Training Centre in Aberdeen.

A born teacher, once qualified she secured a post at St Margaret’s, where she almost idolised the headmistress Eva MacLean and remained for her whole career. There she introduced lacrosse and enjoyed a reputation for maintaining high standards with efficiency, elegance, integrity and unfailing courtesy.

Professionally committed though she was to St Margaret’s, she was also a devoted and active member of St George’s Old Girls’ Association, serving on various committees and becoming its honorary vice president.

It was her mother, a concert pianist, who instilled in her a lifelong love of classical music. Miss Gibb was particularly fond of grand opera and for more than 20 years, from 1955 onwards, she and her widowed mother would make a pilgrimage to Vienna and Salzburg to attend performances of works by Wagner, Richard Strauss and Mozart.

Her favourite was Der Rosenkavalier, preferably with her favourite singer, German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, in the principal role. She was also a regular at Royal Scottish National Orchestra concerts in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.

“She was very influenced by her music heritage,” said her nephew Richard Stirling, “and certainly took music very seriously. She used to say classical music kept her alive. She also had a huge appreciation of not just Germanic but Renaissance art.”

There was no doubt her mother was the dominating influence on her life and at times Miss Gibb appeared to live in her shadow, sacrificing her love of golf, for example, because it entailed leaving her mother all day. However, it only served to illustrate her unswerving loyalty and devotion over the many years she lived with and cared for her at the family home in Merchiston.

The two women also shared a love of Tantah Lodge, the beautiful house near Peebles that Miss Gibb bought as a bolthole where she could indulge her interest in plants and gardening and enjoy afternoon tea in the summerhouse. She had been both membership secretary and vice president of the Scottish Rock Garden Club.

Other interests included the Conservative Party and St Cuthbert’s Parish Church in Lothian Road where she was a lifelong member, attended Tuesday coffee mornings until recently and to which she bequeathed £100,000.

Though a generous benefactor, socially she was not always the easiest to get along with and was regarded as something of a “nippy sweetie” – she once telephoned a hostess, who put milk in her cup before adding the coffee, to ensure she wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

She wasn’t averse to calling the police if a rogue parker blocked her driveway and a mounted police officer had been spotted waiting at her home until a truck uplifted the offending vehicle.

And while she would eat little when dining out, she carried a box in which to transport the remains of her meal which would then feed her for the following two days.

She also routinely declined anything to eat along with her coffee yet secretly loved pink iced buns. Her freezer was stuffed with box upon box of the treats which subsequently filled a wheely bin and several sacks.

A woman of elegant dress sense who was always colour co-ordinated, she loved clothes and would often buy two of each piece – one to wear and one to keep for good. As a result her wardrobe resembled that of twins, full of duplicated items. It also guaranteed she remained chic until the end.

A striking, fit and athletic figure despite being almost 90, she put her long and healthy life down to no alcohol and a good bracing walk each day, preferably across the Meadows.

She is survived by her niece Jane Scott and nephews Richard Stirling and Jonathan Gibb.

ALISON SHAW