Ted as he was universally known, was born on the 13th of February 1908, at Countesswells.
Quoting from his mother's diary.
'Telephoned for Dr Williamson at 6 p.m. Dear Baby came at 7 o'clock"
and next day;
"Baby is a darling though not 'Alice Margaret' [clearly they were hoping for another girl after four sons and two daughters]. He has such a neat little head and pretty mouth. Dick is delighted with him."
At Christmas 1913, a family jingle was composed about the eight children and the relevant verse reads:
"Then we have our little Teddy,
Always has an answer ready
(He infact is far too wise
Even in his mother's eyes)."
Ted was five when this was written.
He was brought up in Kincardineshire in North Eastern Scotland, in isolated surroundings. His father, Sydney Gammell, had inherited an estate and devoted himself to the running of this, to politics and public service and he played a prominent part in the formation of the Forestry Commission. Ted's grandfathers had both been in the Church and in his upbringing, family prayers were said every evening; and Church regularly attended. Although the house was large - it had to be because of the size of the family - it was a frugal life with no central heating and no money for holidays as people enjoy them now. They had to amuse themselves and learn to be self-sufficient. My aunt told me of the Sixpenny Club they had amongst themselves. You were not allowed to spend more than 6d on anything you needed.
Sydney, Ted's father, loved to produce plays - in the house - with members of his family and friends as the cast, and house parties - when friends and relatives came to stay for up to three weeks - were the audience. The children were brought up self-reliant, strong and healthy, with no frills, and a firm discipline. What is very clear from the diaries, is that the parents were a devoted couple, and must have given their children a strong and well-adjusted emotional background. This was typified in Ted's character, in that he was never stressed; he did not complain; he seemed content with his lot in life and found the best in every situation. This stood him in good stead in his lonely years in China.
In May 1918, aged 10, he went to Ardvreck School at Crieff. Ted described his school days as some of the best of his life. He certainly did well here, winning the top form prize for his work in his last year, and the Fives singles and doubles matches. He was in the Cricket XI, the Shooting 8 and the Rugger XV. He moved on to Clifton in September 1921, following in the footsteps of his father. He was Head of his House; captained the Rugger XV in 1926, captained the School Cadet Corps and won the Long Pen, the annual long distance cross-country race of some 8 miles - all in all, a notable career, as the present archivist, Richard Bland, described it.
On leaving school, his housemaster suggested that he join Shell, and after an interview, he was offered a job. After two and a half years in London, during which he played rugby for Rosslyn Park, he was posted to Hong Kong - to use his own words, 'An absolutely marvellous place'.
He spent most of the next decade in China in 1931 he went to Canton and then to Sanshui. He he had an office and a boat and was responsible for stocking, distribution, auditing sales and collection of the proceeds of Paraffin sales through Chinese agents. In 1933 he returned on leave to the UK. On returning to China, he was posted to Wuzhou for a year and then on to Nanning. On the journey to Nanning, for the first time he went by road. All transport previously had been by river. Also whilst in Nanning for the first time he began to sell petrol in small quantities. In many of these postings he was often the only European resident. For recreation he walked his dog and read books. In these remote locations, there was no medical care nearer than Hong Kong, up to 4 days journey away and Ted seriously contemplated having his appendix removed as a precaution, but thought the better of it.
In 1938 he returned again to the UK on leave. This involved a five-week journey by ocean liner in each direction. He went skiing in February in Austria in February, just before Hitler's annexation of that country. After his 1938 leave, he was posted to Manila for a couple of years, before returning to China, to Chongqing, which was then Chiang Kai-shek's capital. As might be expected, the Japanese were bombing Chongqing regularly, but Ted and other foreigners lived on the southern bank which luckily wasn't attacked. While based there he travelled to Rangoon on the famous Burma Road to ensure that Chiang Kai-shek received fuel supplies, as all other routes had been severed by Japanese invasions. He was then posted to Canton, which was at that time Japanese controlled, but he lived on Shameen Island, which was a British Protectorate. Here I quote from Ted's own words:
"On 7th December 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbour, the Japanese took over. The night before I had been playing bridge with the American Consul and all seemed normal but at 5.00 a.m., I was woken up by my servant telling me the news. At about 11 o'clock, the Japanese turned up, searched the house and confiscated my camera and other things. I was otherwise left undisturbed, although confined to the house. "
He and other foreign residents stayed under house arrest for three months before all being moved to an hotel on Shameen island. Ted says, "This was awful, since it was very overcrowded. The Japanese then decided to move us to Shanghai where I was boarded in the house of other Shell people and was allowed to wander round the city as if nothing had happened." Then came a stroke of luck which was to alter Ted's destiny and save him from the fearful horrors of internment which followed for other people. He was selected as a civilian internee, to be exchanged with Japanese civilians caught in the West. They sailed in a luxury liner, the Tatsuta Maru, to Mozambique, where the handover took place. He recalled that the bar would not allow gin or whisky to be drunk, but "white specials" or "yellow specials" were acceptable! Ted returned to Britain on board the Wakunda, via Capetown. He arrived in Liverpool in October 1942. His sister, Barbara, and family in Forfar, where his mother was also living, gave him a home for two months.
Shell made sure that Ted was not drafted into the Army and insisted he was needed to do vital war work in co-ordinating fuel supplies for the navy and RAF from their key African bases in Lagos and Freetown.
He re-sailed from Avonmouth on an unescorted meat boat going to South America and was dropped off in Freetown, where he caught another boat for Lagos. After 6 months in Lagos and then a year in Freetown, he returned on leave. This time for the first time by air, via Lisbon and landing at Bournemouth. He returned to Lagos in 1944, via Libya and Kano. On both these flights, he was flying at night over enemy occupied Europe!
Ted thereafter spent a decade in West Africa and must have relied heavily on his tough Gammell/Stobart genes to survive, as the area was then known as the White Man's grave. Just when the family had given him up to bachelorhood,
Cupid took a hand and in 1947, in Lagos, he met Ann Moir-Byres who was staying with the Frosts. Ted knew he had found someone special and pressed his suit and they were married in London in September 1948. John's wife, Meg, recalls attending the wedding, after which there was no reception. She remembers seeing them off into a taxi and they didn't see them again for ten years. Ted and Ann returned to Lagos where they lived until 1954. Alistair was born in 1949, Graham in 1951 and Jane in 1954 (all in the UK).
Having returned to the UK, they made their home at White House, Potter Row, Great Missenden and Ted spent the next 9 years at Head Office in London, as assistant manager for the World Bitumen Market. In 1963 he retired, and in inimitable Gammell style, did not put down his baton, but became a County Councillor from 1965-1970, ran an appeal for North Foreland Lodge school and the box office for the Little Missenden Arts Festival.
In 1969, they moved to the Old Cottage, Minstead, in the New Forest, where, they enjoyed walks and rural pursuits together and Ann's musical gifts for carol writing benefited the church, as did their donkey. It was during this period that Ted gave his greatest tangible service to the Gammell family by researching and compiling the well documented Family History of the years 1695-1946 that is the basis for this web-site. It was a major retirement project, for which Ann accompanied him on many searches. To balance the scene, Ted was her companion on regular visits to the Aldeburgh Festival which delighted them both. It was Ted who discovered the very first mention of the name GAMEL on an Anglo-Saxon dial in the Church of Kirkdale in Rydale, Yorkshire. This church was rebuilt in 1055 from ruins dating back to 750AD, by Orm Gamel. In 1979 Ted suffered a stroke which partially paralysed his right side. Thereafter he walked with the aid of a stick and learnt to write with his left hand. No one ever heard him complain.
In 1987 he and Ann left Minstead and came to Selborne to share a home with his daughter, Jane, her husband Jon, and their children Sophie and William. Ann died on 13 January 1996, but Ted, despite the weakness left by the stroke, remained active to the end. He had a particularly memorable 90th birthday party when, despite it being February, the weather was so warm that the entire party took place outdoors and he got mildly sunburnt!
The above summary comes from information my father told me about his life, as well as from the researches of Rosemary Stobart Wilson, his neice, who beautifully gave his funeral address.