{{Short description|British artist and calligrapher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Use British English|date=April 2023}}
{{infobox person | name = Avril Gibb | image = Avril Gibbs.jpg | caption = Gibb pictured around 1985 | birth_name = Avril Veronica Gibb | birth_date = 16 April 1926 | birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|2|6|1926|4|16|df=y}} | death_place = Largs, Scotland | alma_mater = | occupation = Artist, calligrapher | spouse = Sir James Watson-Stewart (1980–1988; his death) | partner = | children = }}
'''Avril Veronica Gibb''' (16 April 1926 – 6 February 2016), officially known as '''Lady Avril Veronica Watson-Stewart''',<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Lady Avril Veronica Watson Stewart |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/announcements/deaths/deaths/14278838.Lady_Avril_Veronica_Watson_Stewart/ |access-date=2023-04-20 |website=HeraldScotland |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Who's who in Art: 2006 |publisher=Art Trade Press Ltd. |year=2006 |pages=916}}</ref> was a Scottish artist and calligrapher. She specialised in medieval manuscripts.
== Early life == Gibb was born in Glasgow, in 1926, as an only child. Her father, Andrew Adamson Gibb,<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Susan |title=Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2019 |publisher=Debrett's |year=2020}}</ref> owned a pianoforte business in Cambridge Street. The family later lived in Skelmorlie.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Avril Watson-Stewart |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14336630.avril-watson-stewart/ |access-date=2023-04-20 |website=HeraldScotland |date=11 March 2016 |language=en}}</ref>
She attended Glasgow High School for Girls, where she gained an interest in art.<ref name=":0" />
Aged 21, Gibb began four years of studying at the Glasgow School of Art.<ref name=":0" />
In the 1960s, she spent a period living and working in New York City, before returning to the family's Beach House in Skelmorlie to care for her parents, who were in failing health. During this period, Gibb founded a bird sanctuary at the house, and she adopted an owl. She used an owl in the logo for Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue Centre in Beith.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == Upon graduating college in 1951, she worked with Glasgow architect Jack Coia. She created five illuminated addresses which were presented to Elizabeth II during her state visit to Scotland in 1953. One of them is now archived at Windsor Castle.<ref name=":0" />
Gibb also designed and lettered many architectural features in buildings and memorials which were being built or renovated in Glasgow during the 1960s and 1970s.<ref name=":0" />
She etched the glass screen present on the McTaggart Memorial Chapel in Largs Parish Church, as well as designing a plaque at Wemyss Bay railway station.<ref name=":0" />
In 1965, she provided the illustrated section headings for Veronica Maclean's ''Lady Maclean's Cook Book.''
== Personal life == Gibb married Sir James Watson-Stewart, 4th Baronet of Balgownie,<ref name=":2" /> in September 1980, the ceremony taking place at Largs Episcopal Church. She was Watson-Stewart's second wife, after Anne Elizabeth Glaister. The couple lived at Kilcreggan, Argyll and Bute. She became a widow eight years later, and returned to Wemyss Bay, living in a second-floor flat at Undercliff Court.<ref name=":0" />
Around 2006, after a fall, Gibb moved Largs. Her health continued to deteriorate, however, and she moved into Moorburn Manor Nursing Home.<ref name=":0" />
She was a patron of Largs Variations choir.<ref name=":0" />
== Death and legacy == Having developed dementia in her final years, Gibb died in 2016, aged 89.<ref name=":0" /> A memorial service was held at St Columba's Scottish Episcopal Church in Largs on 24 February.<ref name=":1" />
The Glasgow School of Art established the Avril V. Gibb Memorial Prize in her memory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NEWS RELEASE: Architecture graduate, Jerome Wren, wins the 2017 Newbery Medal |url=http://gsapress.blogspot.com/2017/06/architecture-graduate-jerome-wren-wins.html |access-date=2023-04-20 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibb, Avril}} Category:1926 births Category:2016 deaths Category:Scottish artists Category:Artists from Glasgow Category:Glasgow School of Art Category:Wives of baronets Category:People from Skelmorlie