Ernest Gimson: Growing up in Leicester

Ernest Gimson was one of eleven children born to Josiah Gimson, six of whom survived to maturity. The family lived 4 Belmont Villas, now 118 New Walk, and he was sent to Franklin’s School in Stoneygate. He was not considered strong as a child and was sent for holidays to the Morleys, cousins who ran a farm of Lincolnshire, to benefit from outdoor life and fresh air. Despite growing up in an urban environment, or perhaps because of it, the countryside around Leicester played an important part in the family’s recreational activities. 

 

As a boy he loved being outdoors, playing in the countryside around Leicester. He would go to Belgrave and Bradgate Parks and the Charnwood Forest and fill notebooks with details of the plants and wildlife. According to his sister Maggie he spent his pocket money in Leicester market, buying owls and jackdaws sold as pets and setting them free. A youthful notebook included several drafts of an angry letter to the Leicester Post in 1882 in response to an earlier request in its pages for specimens of birds and animals for the local museum. Gimson accepted the need for examples for scientific study and general interest but protested against the collection of duplicate specimens.

 

 

His circle of friends while he was growing up in Leicester included the London-born Clara Collet whose first teaching post was at Wyggeston’s Girls’ School, Leicester from 1878. She met the Gimson family in about 1882 and was introduced by them to the Secular Society. They also met at dances and other social events including amateur dramatics. Gimson was a particular fan of Gilbert and Sullivan’s light operas and productions were regularly staged at the Royal Opera House in Leicester. Clara Collet left Leicester and returned to London to study for an MA in political economy in 1885, the year before Gimson moved to London. Their friendship continued sporadically in London and in the Cotswolds.