Christina Gibb (née Godfrey; 6 August 1929 – 18 March 2018) was a New Zealand peace activist and environmental advocate.

Biography

Gibb was born Christina Godfrey on 6 August 1929 in

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England, the third daughter of British naval intelligence officer (and "M" prototype)

John Henry Godfrey Admiral John Henry Godfrey CB (10 July 1888 – 29 August 1970) was an officer of the Royal Navy and Royal Indian Navy, specialising in navigation. Ian Fleming is said to have based James Bond's boss, " M", on Godfrey. Life and career Godfr ...

and Margaret Godfrey (née Hope). She was educated at

Downe House School Downe House School is a private girls' boarding and day school in Cold Ash near Newbury, Berkshire, for girls aged 11–18. Entrance is selective, and the school has an enrollment of 559. The '' Good Schools Guide'' described Downe House ...

, the Sorbonne (Paris) and the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, graduating with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in crystallography. At Oxford, she met ornithologist and ecologist John Gibb. They married in 1950 and had two children, emigrating to New Zealand in 1957, where she worked as a high-school teacher and studied for the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priesthood, despite being ineligible at the time due to her gender. Instead, she became a parish worker and then warden of an ecumenical retreat centre. Later, when women became eligible for the priesthood in New Zealand, she was rejected because she had separated from her husband. They divorced in 1977. Gibb became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1980. Gibb spent years restoring an area of native bush on her property in the Dunedin suburb of Ravensbourne, placing a

Queen Elizabeth II National Trust The Queen Elizabeth II National Trust (QEII) is a registered charity and statutory New Zealand organisation independent from the government and managed by a board of directors. It was established in 1977 by the Queen Elizabeth the Second Natio ...

covenant on the forest. She was a proponent, and ultimately an adherent, of

natural burial Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to burial methods and funerary customs. The body may be ...

. She died in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

on 18 March 2018, aged 88.

Activism

After moving to Dunedin in 1982, Gibb became a rape crisis counsellor and

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

advocate. She travelled to Hong Kong in 1991 to volunteer at a detention centre for

Vietnamese boat people Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...

seeking asylum there. She became a supporter of

David Bain On 20 June 1994, Robin and Margaret Bain and three of their four childrenArawa, Laniet, and Stephenwere shot to death in Dunedin, New Zealand. The only suspects were David Cullen Bain, the eldest son and only survivor, and Robin Bain, the fathe ...

following his conviction for murder. In March 2004, Gibb and Dunedin mayor

Sukhi Turner Dame Sukhinder Kaur Gill Turner (born Sukhinder Kaur Gill, 13 April 1952), commonly known as Sukhi Turner, is a New Zealand politician who served as the Mayor of Dunedin, New Zealand, from 1995 until her retirement from the position in 2004. Sh ...

led a rally opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2004, Gibb travelled to

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

and worked with people from Israeli, Palestinian and international peace and human rights organisations as part of the

Christian Peacemaker Teams Community Peacemaker Teams or CPT (previously called Christian Peacemaker Teams) is an international organization set up to support teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the world. The organization uses these teams to achieve its aims ...

. From 2004 to 2006, she wrote articles for the ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (''ODT'') is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and ...

'' newspaper's weekly ''World Focus'' supplement, describing her work in Hebron.

Arrest

On 4 November 2004, Gibb (then aged 75) and fellow Christian Peacemaker Team

Joe Carr Joseph Benedict Carr (22 February 1922 – 3 June 2004) was an Irish amateur golfer. Early life Carr was born in Inchicore, a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, to George and Margaret Mary "Missie" Waters (the fifth of seven children). At 10 days ol ...

(22) were arrested and detained by Israeli police for eight hours on suspicion of terrorism. The pair had been observing the activities of

Israeli Defence Force The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, an ...

soldiers at the

Beit Romano Beit may refer to: *Beit (surname) *Beit baronets *Bet (letter), a letter of the Semitic abjad *A component of Arabic placenames and Hebrew placenames, literally meaning 'house' *'' Masada: Beit'' album by American jazz band Masada *Bayt (poetry), ...

checkpoint in Hebron.Stewart, Lea: "Dunedin woman arrested in Israel" ''

'' 8 November 2004 page 1

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibb, Christina 1929 births 2018 deaths People from Sevenoaks People educated at Downe House School Alumni of the University of Oxford British emigrants to New Zealand Naturalised citizens of New Zealand People from Dunedin New Zealand educators New Zealand human rights activists New Zealand environmentalists