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George Abraham Gibbs of Tyntesfield

George Gibbs (1873-1931), 1st Baron Wraxall, was a Conservative politician whose grandfather made his fortune from selling bird poo, among other things. In 1843 Grandad bought Tyntesfield a Victorian Gothic revival house near Wraxall in Somerset, now owned by the National Trust. The building on the right in the panel is the chapel, modelled by the architect Arthur Blomfield on Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. The house used to have England's longest holly hedge until it was breached by Americans during the Second World War, when it was used to house wounded American servicemen. George's two sons by his first wife both died; his sons by his second wife survived. The elder son, George William, succeded to the title. In 1988, when he was fifty, he was kidnapped and locked in the boot of his BMW. He survived and the title passed to his younger brother when he died.

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