BIOGRAPHICAL TIMELINE
1889
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs born at 'The Vineyard' Great Baddow in Essex near Chelmsford.
1899
Attends Preparatory School 'The Wick' at Hove in Sussex.
1902
Earns scholarship and attends Winchester College.
1908-1913
Trinity College at Cambridge, working towards his Bachelors of Music under Charles Wood.
1915
Joins staff of former Preparatory School 'The Wick' at Hove in Sussex.
1916
Gibbs marries Honor Mitchell.
1917
Song setting Five Eyes (Walter de la Mare)
1918
Song setting The Bells (Walter de la Mare)
1919
Gibbs composes music for Walter de la Mare's Crossings. Adrian Boult conducts the premiere and encourages Gibbs to take composition seriously. Gibbs enrolls in Royal College of Music and studies under Ralph Vaughan Williams.
1920
Commisioned to write music for Maeterlinck's play The Betrothal
Performance of Crossings Orchestral Suite at the Promenade Concerts at Queen's Hall.
Song setting of Silver (Walter de la Mare)
1921
Begins teaching music theory at the Royal College of Music (continues until 1939).
Composes music for Cambridge Greek play the Oresteia.
In the High Alps, suite for piano
Song setting of The Tiger-Lily (Dorothy Pleydell-Bouverie)
1922
Gibbs founded Danbury Choral Society.
Song setting The Sleeping Beauty (Walter de la Mare)
1923
Publication of music for A.P. Herbert's comic opera The Blue Peter
Music for Clifford Bax's harlequinade Midsummer Madness.
Begins adjudicating music festivals (continues until 1952).
Composes Oboe Concerto for Leon Goosens.
Joins executive of the Essex Music Association, beginning long association with festival movement
1924
Song setting of Neglected Moon! (Clifford Bax)
1927
Leon Goosens performs Gibbs Oboe Concerto.
The Birth of Christ, Cantata
1930
Song setting The Ballad of Semmerwater by Sir William Watson
1931
Composes first symphony, Symphony in E.
1932
First symphony performed and conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
Composes Almayne for string orchestra.
1934
Awarded Cobbet Gold Medal for services to British Chamber Music.
Wins second prize in Daily Telegraph Competition for String Quarter in A Major.
1937
Composes A Spring Garland for string orchestra.
Becomes Vice President of British Federation of Music Festivals (1937-1952).
1938
Composes his second symphony, the choral symphony Odysseus.
Lakeland Pictures Eight Preludes for Piano.
1943
Gibbs son David is killed in action in Italy.
1944
Gibbs completes his third symphony, Westmorland.
1946
First performance of the second symphony, the choral symphony Odysseus.
Song setting of Four Songs for a Mad Sea Captain (Bernard Martin)
1951
Song setting of The Oxen (Thomas Hardy).
1956
Composes Threnody for string orchestra in memory of Walter de la Mare.
1959
Completes Suite for Strings for string orchestra.
1960
Dies in Essex.
