Herbert Victor Gilbert and Beatrice Mary nee Arnold
Herbert Victor Gilbert (usually known as Victor or Vic) was born into a well-known family business of Coventry watchmakers and jewellers. His grandfather Richard, one of the pioneers of the Coventry watchmaking trade, had begun the business with a pair of shops in High Street, and two more in Broadgate and The Burges; these were carried on into the next generation by his son Herbert, and thence by Victor and his brother Gordon Phillip.
Victor was born on 25 October 1897, the eldest child of Herbert and Emma nee Perkins. Emma's father Joshua Perkins ran a textile firm in Stoke, Coventry. Victor was baptised as
Herbert Victor on 2 December at St. Michael's which was later to become Coventry Cathedral. The family lived in Grosvenor Street and his father's occupation was given as jeweller. In 1901 the family still lived there, but had moved to Westminster Road by 1911; Victor, however, was then boarding at the Magdalen College School in Brackley.
Beatrice Mary Arnold was the daughter of Abraham and Eliza Arnold. She was born on 9 February 1893, one of three children of the marriage. Abraham had been married before and had a son, Arthur John, by his first wife Martha. Beatrice was born in Dudley, Staffordshire where her father was a blacksmith though by 1898 the family had moved to Coventry, since the youngest child of the family was born there; in 1901 they lived in Oxford Street. In 1911 they lived in Huntingdon Road, Earlsdon, and Beatrice was a student.
Victor and Beatrice were married in mid-1926, in Coventry. Their son Richard was born the following year.
From the mid - 1930s R. Gilbert and Sons, The City Jewellers, founded by their grandfather, was being run by Victor and his brother Gordon Phillip. In the 1939 register Victor was recorded as working as a naval inspection engineer, in gauge tool work, and his wife was a saleswoman in the jewellers. They had made their home in Styvechale Avenue. The last shop closed for business in the Burges in 1971.
Beatrice died on 22 February 1985 aged 92. Victor died on 28 August 1991 aged 93. Their headstone proclaims "Together again."