Life with the Vivians
by Iris David
I have a claim to fame! I was (and believe I am still) the only child ever to have been born in the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. To explain this, I must tell you about my father’s relationship with the Vivian family.
Thomas Knibbs
The Glyn Vivian Art Gallery is on the left
and Swansea Library on the right
In 1902, my father Thomas Knibbs, at the age of 20, become valet to Graham Vivian who was then 75 and living at Clyne Castle, at Blackpill. This was a job for a single man, because it entailed much travelling—Mr Vivian’s interests included fine art collecting, and that meant regular travel to the Continent—France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Paris was always the first stop, then Rome, Naples, Milan and Monte Carlo. As personal valet he was on duty twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, sometimes getting up at night to wash Mr Vivian’s face and comb his hair. There was little free time. But he did acquire a real knowledge of, and love for, the fine arts. That was to prove invaluable in later years.
Mr Vivian’s brother, Richard Glynn Vivian, was the maverick of the family. He lived at Sketty Hall, which was bought in 1898. He had a reputation as a philanderer but, like his brother Graham, he was an avid art collector. In 1905, he offered his collection to the Swansea Corporation, together with the sum of £6,000 to build an Art Gallery. After some wrangling, the offer was accepted and Mr Glynn Vivian laid the foundation stone in May 1909, but was to die before the Gallery was opened, in 1911.
My father then saw an opportunity to marry, having had his eye for years on Ethel Zebedee, a Ladies Maid, whom he had met in service at Rendcomb Park, in Gloucester. A caretaker was needed for the new Gallery, and he saw his chance to get away from valeting and to look after the art treasures of the Vivian family. Out of 307 applicants, my father got the job. It included rent-free accommodation, free light and coal, and 22 shillings a week.
Thomas Knibbs and Ethel Zebedee were married in May 1911. I was born in April 1912 – at the Glynn Vivian. I lived there for twenty-five years, until my marriage in 1937, when I moved to Birmingham. My parents and I lived in a flat underneath the Art Gallery. It was spacious— We had a living/dining room, a front sitting-room, a kitchen with a covered bath, a main bedroom, a broom-cupboard, a toilet and basin, and another small room—used as a workshop by my father.
In 1914, a large Exhibition as staged at the Gallery. My father collected, displayed and returned over one thousand pieces of Swansea China, Pontypool and Usk ware, furniture, paintings, etchings and drawings. Over his years as Caretaker, he oversaw 250 Exhibitions.
He loved the china, and other works of art displayed at the Gallery. He turned down jobs at the Mansion House, and in 1934 as Superintendent of the new Guildhall, just to stay at the Glynn Vivian.
In 1939, when War broke out, he had to remove all the best porcelain and glass to places of safety. He did so, using the shaft leading down to the sewers at Mumbles Head. The Brangwyn Panels from the Guildhall were also rolled up and stored in the same way. Every week he would check them. Nothing was ever damaged.
A deeply religious man, he attended Holy Trinity, almost opposite the Glynn Vivian. The Church as destroyed by the Luftwaffe raid in 1941, causing him great heartache. During the War, he spent many nights on the roof of the Gallery – no incendiaries were going to destroy his beloved Glynn Vivian! Twenty-five did in fact hit the Gallery, but with the help of the Air Raid Wardens they were extinguished, and no harm was done. Mr Grant Murray, the then Curator of the Gallery, gave my father four prints of his work on the 1929 Eisteddfod, by way of appreciation for his service.
My son has a portrait of my father, painted by a local Swansea artist Walter Fuller, in 1927. I did not like the portrait, because the eyes followed me round the room. My son still says ‘Everyday I look at him – and he looks back at me . . ‘
He died in 1959, aged 77. His dignified bearing, his courteous manner, and his real knowledge of fine art meant that he was a much-respected Swansea citizen.