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1892 - 1957

Evelyn (Rex) Gibson was born at Hatfield Peveril in Essex, England on November 7, 1892. He was educated at Mowden Preparatory School and at Sherbourne School. At sixteen he went to work in a private bank in Paris, belonging to his family. This bank was later absorbed by Lloyds and after the war he served with the later in Cologne and Antwerp. He was fluent in French and German and was always happy to converse with the guides and others in these languages.

Gibson enlisted in the Artillery in September 1914, and received his commission in November, 1914. He saw action at Ypres, the Somme and Cambrai, and was appointed Staff Captain Royal Artillery III Corps, in January 1917. He was awarded the Military Cross and was three times mentioned in dispatches. In July 1926, Gibson immigrated to Canada and started farming at Winterburn near Edmonton in 1927. As a farmer he was able to arrange things so that he had the winters and summers available to climb and ski in the mountains.

Prior to coming to Canada Rex Gibson had made a few climbs in Switzerland, the notable one being a winter ascent of the Jungfrau during a ski tour in January 1925, however, once in the mountains of Canada he rapidly came to the forefront of mountaineering with his unique ability and skills. He was instrumental in introducing many young boys to the mountains especially through the Boy Scouts and he was also a very strong and fast climber and if he chose very few could keep up with him. During his thirty years of mountaineering in Western Canada he made over two hundred climbs, including many first ascents and in 1934 Gibson was awarded the Silver Rope Award for Leadership from the ACC. In 1936 he climbed Mount Clemenceau and Mount Robson with Sterling Hendricks and then in 1937 they climbed Mount Columbia and Twin North. Gibson later wrote: "It was a source of great satisfaction to Sterling and me that we made mountaineering history by being the first climbers ever to complete the ascent of all four 12,000-foot peaks in the Rockies." In between climbing Clemenceau and Robson, Gibson, Sterling and Max Strumia made an unsuccessful attempt on Brussels Peak. This was considered the "last unclimbable" peak in the Rockies and finally fell, ten days later, to Bob Hind and Ferris Neave. In 1938 Gibson climbed Mount Forbes and South Twin and in 1939 with Sterling Hendricks, Hans Fuhrer and Henry Hall he visited the Coast Mountains and made several first ascents including Mount Tiedemann. Then in 1946 he was the first Canadian since Conrad Kain to ascend Bugaboo Spire. Rex Gibson was a regular attendee at the Alpine Club of Canada summer camps and he played a major role in the development and management of the ACC winter ski camps.

When World War II broke-out, Gibson rejoined the army in February 1941 with the Royal Canadian Artillery and was promoted to Major in 1944. During this period of service he was Canadian Military Representative with the U.S. Army's Mount McKinley expedition in 1942 to test cold weather equipment; was instructor at the Little Yoho Military Camp in 1943 when a number of members of the ACC gave instructions in mountaineering to an army group, and took part in the Lovat Scout training in Jasper Park in the winter of 1943-44. Gibson was injured during the McKinley expedition and was discharged from the army with a pension.

On June 12, 1948, he married Ethne Gale, the daughter of Brigadier-General Henry Gale and Kathleen Jane Villiers-Stuart, and they had one child: Kathleen Gibson. Ethne's father introduced her to the mountains when she was ten. In July 1922 they accompanied a party from the Victoria Section of the Alpine Club of Canada that included Colonel Rusty Westmorland, Colonel Richard Greer and Lindley Crease to Mount Arrowsmith and then at the ACC camp in 1936 she graduated to active membership. Rex Gibson met Ethne at the 1936 camp and in 1938 he joined Ethne, Don and Phyllis Munday, Len Rossiter and Dick Idiens on the first winter ascent of Mount Albert Edward. This wasn't her first trip into Strathcona Park as she had made a couple of earlier trips to the Comox Glacier and Forbidden Plateau. Gibson sold his farm near Edmonton and moved to 'Bardsey' in Saanichton where he joined the Vancouver Island section of the ACC. Together they climbed a number of peaks on the island including Mount Whymper in 1949 and regularly attended the annual ACC camps together. In 1953 he co-led an ACC-VI trip to Big Interior Mountain with the doctors Mark Mitchell and Roger Stanier and a young and energetic Syd Watts. In 1955 he was on the ACC-VI trip to Mount Constance near Port Angeles with Syd Watts, Geoffrey Capes and his daughter Katherine , Ken Stoker, Cyril Jones and Ted Goodall, and in 1956 on a ACC-VI trip to the Chemainus River area with Syd Watts, Connie Bonner, Marjorie Thomas, Bill Lash, Mark Mitchell and Hamish Parks.

In 1954 Gibson made his first attempt on the unclimbed Mount Howson in the Buckley Range near Terrace but was unsuccessful and returned again in 1955 and 1956. On August 18, 1957, Rex Gibson returned for the forth time with Sterling Hendricks and Don Hubbard. While cutting steps up a gully Gibson fell and pulled the others with him. Eventually they came to a stop. All of them were injured, however, Gibson's injuries proved to be fatal although at the time he was semiconscious. Hendricks went to get help but it was two days before they returned and by then Gibson was dead. He was sixty-four years old. A close climbing friend, Bob Hind wrote, "Rex's love for the mountains was more than a hobby; it became a passion which he was ever willing and eager to share with others." Rex was serving his second term as ACC President at the time of his death. In July 1958, the ACC sent an expedition to build a memorial on the mountain to Gibson. After building a solid rock cairn housing a bronze plaque at the south col, Adolf Bitterlich, John Owen and Bill Lash turned their attention to Mount Howson eventually making the first ascent to honour their fallen friend.

Sources:
"Climbed Mountain in Blizzard." Comox Argus. [Courtenay, B.C.] (January 27, 1938.)

Munday, Don. "Mount Albert Edward Climbed in Winter." Victoria Daily Times. [Victoria, B.C.] (February 19, 1938.)

"Local Alpine Club Members Scale Strathcona Park Peak." Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] (September 11, 1953) p. 6.

Hendricks, Sterling. "The Accident on Mt. Howson." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 41. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1958. p. 39-45.

Hind, Robin. "In Memoriam. E. Rex Gibson." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 41. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1958. p. 111-113.

Lash, Bill. "Rex Gibson Memorial Climb." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 42. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1959. p. 39-41.

Ramsey, Heather. "Many Mountains to Climb: Adolph Bitterlich's Return to Howson Peak." Northword Magazine. #10, Winter 2006. Smithers, BC. p. 6-7, 32.

Wagar, Kathie. "Centennial Climb of Mount Howson/Loft Peak. August 25-31, 2006." The North Col. The Alpine Club of Canada Prince George section newsletter. November, 2006. p. 2-4.

Scott, Chic. Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering. Rocky Mountain Books. Calgary, Alberta. 2000.

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