Reg Gilbert had an adventurous spirit from an early age. Born in Birmingham in 1923, he would save his daily tram fare to grammar school to buy chocolate and, instead, use his roller skates to journey the 7 miles to school each day!
When the war began, Reg was working as a junior clerk for an insurance company in the centre of Birmingham,but lived only a mile away from the Vickers factory where Spitfires were built. The factory was a prime target for German bombers,so he volunteered for flying duties in the RAF soon after his 18th birthday.
After two years training in flight theory he set sail on the Queen Mary, bound for the States, and was posted to The British Flying School in Ponca City Oklahoma where he learned to fly Tiger Moths and Harvards.
On completing his training, he returned to the UK and was selected as a flying instructor.
After the war, the RAF steered Reg towards a career in teaching. He then moved to Frome Grammar School, where he taught Maths and PE, and began the Duke of Edinburgh scheme in 1958 followed by a canoe club, with canoes initially made from orange boxes and black Bostik adhesive!
Reg went on to become the Head of Outdoor Education and worked tirelessly to broaden the horizons of young people by leading pioneering expeditions with students from Frome Grammar, later Frome College, to Iceland, the Sahara desert, Ghana and Papua New Guinea.
Reg believed that, in order to improve international understanding, students should spend time living with indigenous people to experience their culture and way of life. Consequently, on his retirement, he set up the charity GIFT, offering bursaries for those undertaking volunteering projects with homestays in developing countries.
Fostering international friendship and increasing cultural understanding have always been, and still remain, GIFT’s core aims.
Reg was recognised with an MBE in 2004.
