William Gilbert (author)

William Gilbert (20 May 1804 – 3 January 1890) was an English writer and Royal Navy surgeon. He wrote a considerable number of novels, biographies, histories, essays (especially about the dangers of alcohol and the plight of the poor) and popular fantasy stories, mostly in the 1860s and 1870s. Some of these have been reprinted in recent decades and are still available today. He is best remembered, however, as the father of dramatist W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Life and career

Gilbert was born at Bishopstoke, Hampshire, the eldest son of William (1780–1812), a grocer in Commercial Row, Blackfriars, London, and his wife Sarah née Mathers (1782–1810). Both his parents died of tuberculosis by the time William was seven years old, and thereafter, he and his younger siblings, Joseph and Jane, were raised in London by their mother's sister and her husband, Mary née Mathers (1770–1865) and John Samuel Schwenck (1780–1861), a childless and financially comfortable couple. Gilbert's father had also left the children legacies that would be invested by their uncle until the youngest had reached age 21, so Gilbert's would not be due to him until age 26. With the three young Gilbert children, the Schwencks soon moved from Lambeth to a larger house in Clapham, where they raised the children with affection.

Gilbert served the East India Company as a midshipman from 1818 (age 14) to 1821 but was unhappy with the conditions, and so he quit the service. He then spent several years in Italy, returning to England about 1825.