Alice Rosamond Gammell (Bond)

(1875-1962) 

Alice, the youngest child of The Rev. James Stewart Gammell and his wife Ann Bramley, was born on 31 January 1875, like the rest of the family at Outwood in Yorkshire. Throughout her life she was known as 'Toby'. Having spent much of her youth at Drumtochty, after her father died, she moved in 1900 with her mother to Nettleham Grange near Lincoln. It was there that she met her future husband Denys Bond, a school master, and son of John Bond, Archdeacon of Stow, and Precentor of Lincoln Cathedral. They were married in the Parish Church at Nettleham on 21 December 1908.

Toby and Denys had a son, Geoffrey Bond, who was born on 27 May 1912 in Brighton.

Toby was a very warm and lively character. Much of her later life was spent in her beloved Yorkshire, where she had been born. She was a well-known breeder of Alsatian dogs, and in the early 1930s was instrumental with another lady, Muriel Crooke, in training the first guide dogs for the blind and starting the now well known charity Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Denys died on 4 April 1937, and after his death, Toby moved to a cottage in the village of Arncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales. She was devoted to her (first) daughter-in-law Kathleen, who went to live with her at Arncliffe, where they both identified themselves with the life of the village and lived a happy and frugal life there until Toby died on 15 August 1962 and Kathleen on 29 December 2001.

Geoffrey Bond (1912-1983) and his descendants

Born in Brighton on 27 May 1912, Geoffrey spent most of his childhood in Yorkshire.  He married Kathleen Nathan on 2 January 1934. Geoffrey started his working life as a teacher, but geology was his hobby and in 1937 he was awarded a scholarship to study geology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. They were living next door to Toby in Arncliffe at the time of the 1939 census  The war however intervened and from 1940 to 1945 Geoffrey served with the RAF in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was only able to return to his studies in 1946 and that same year he graduated with first class honours.

Having been stationed in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the war, Geoffrey had fallen in love with that country and immediately after graduation he emigrated to take up the post of Keeper of Geology at the National Museum in Bulawayo.  Geoffrey and Kathleen’s marriage was dissolved in 1955 and on 1 November 1960 he married Marina Levitzky in Bulawayo.  On that same day he was appointed the inaugural Professor and Head of the Department of Geology at the newly established University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

He was a leading geologist who won numerous international awards and on his retirement was vice-principal of the University of Zimbabwe.

Geoffrey and Marina had a son, Ivan and a daughter, Nina.

Geoffrey died on 19 June 1983.  

Above: Alice (right) with her brother, Sydney J (standing), sister Elizabeth M (left), and her cousin Sydney A W (sitting second from right)

Below:  Alice in about 1890 (F Gourlay)

Above: Alice in about the 1950s

Below: Geoffrey Bond