Susan Carr-Gomm

From FreeBMD: Registration of birth of Susan Gibbs in 1927

April to June 1927: Registration of birth of Susan Gibbs; Mother's maiden name: Houldsworth; in Hatfield (Volume 3a, Page 1257)

From British Newspaper Archive: Weekly Dispatch (London) Sunday, 28 July 1957 Page 7 East-End's home-help major wins a wife

Curiosity made the Colonel's daughter go to see him

Not many women would join me here. By Anthony Hunter

The latest society engagement was announced last week — not in Mayfair or in a stately English home, but in a terraced tenement off Jamaica Road, in Bermondsey, South-East London. It is between Major Richard Culling Carr-Gomm, formerly of the Coldstream Guards, and Miss Susan Gibbs, youngest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel R. C. B. Gibbs, of Thorpe Hall, Rudston, Driffield, Yorkshire.

First to hear the news of their romance were three old age pensioners who live with Major Carr-Gomm at the tenement in Lynton-road, and who have him to thank for their home and happiness.

The 35-year-old major resigned his commission two-and-a-half years ago after 15 years' service, to dedicate his life to the welfare of lonely old people.

After a short " recruit stage" as home help, scrubbing floors and looking after old folk in Bermondsey, he spent all his capital buying six houses in the poorer parts of the borough. In these he placed 24 old people who could not support themselves properly.

Then into the midst of this dedicated work came Miss Gibbs. They first met in the fashionable round of cocktail parties and dances when Major Carr-Gomm was an officer with a big future.

One day she went to Bermondsey with another Guards officer to see how he was getting on in this new life, so alien to the one he had left.

Fascinated

The work Dick was doing fascinated me," Gibbs said. "I thought about it for a bit and then asked if I could help him." She became a housekeeper, looking after four of the old people in one of the major's houses.

"I wasn't very surprised when Dick popped the question last Monday." she added with a smile. "But it was a bit difficult."

"You see," said Major Carr-Gomm, "while I was trying to propose, dear old Miss Gilbert — she's 80 and one of our old people — kept popping in and out 'passing the time of day.' "

Mayfair date

Miss Gibbs, who is 30, says that she is not dedicated to the old people in the same way her fiancé is. "But now lam dedicated to him, so I suppose it amounts to the same thing," she said with a smile.

They hope to have the wedding in Mayfair in October — "so both our families and the old people can be there," Major Carr-Gomm added. But Miss Gibbs's father is ill and the wedding may have to beheld quietly in Yorkshire.

"I am really a very lucky man," the major said. "There are not many women who would join me in this work I have taken on."

From FreeBMD: Registration of marriage of Richard C. Carr-Gomm in 1957 and FreeBMD: Registration of marriage of Susan Gibbs in 1957

• October to December 1957: Registration of marriage of Susan Gibbs and Carr-Gomm; in Bermondsey (Volume 5c, Page 173)
• October to December 1957: Registration of marriage of Richard C. Carr-Gomm and Gibbs; in Bermondsey (Volume 5c, Page 173)