Gibbs Bright & Co.

Description

Agent TypeOrganisationActivities & OccupationsExportersTradersGraziersShipping agentsHistoryIn 1853 Charles Edward Bright travelled to Melbourne and established Bright Brothers & Co., a steamship transport company and general insurance agent. It was a branch house of the Bristol trading partnership of Gibbs, Bright and Co. and a collateral firm of Antony Gibbs and Sons Ltd. Bright Brothers rapidly became a leading colonial shipping agent and merchant. Both Bright Brothers and Charles Bright flourished in the colony. Charles became a respected business man and in 1868 married Anna Maria Georgiana, daughter of the Governor of Victoria, Sir John Henry Thomas Manners-Sutton. Charles and Georgiana were survived by three sons, the eldest of whom, Mr Alfred Ernest Bright, remained in Australia and, with his uncle Mr Reginald Bright, continued with the Company.

In 1881, Antony Gibbs & Sons absorbed the Bristol, Liverpool and Australasian branches of Bright Bros. & Co. The name of the Australian branch became Gibbs Bright and Co. This Company was on the threshold of an era of expansion that saw it achieve prominence in mining, stevedoring, pastoral investment, shipping and exporting, wool and timber, maintained by an Australian-wide network of offices and agents. In 1981 this company, together with the British-based group, was acquired by the Hong Kong, Shanghai Bank.

Image

Prell's Building

Offices of Gibbs, Bright and Co. Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Accession

[1980.0115] Consolidated Records of Gibbs Bright & Co.

People and Organisations

Bright, Samuel (1799-1870)

University of Melbourne Archives

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Gibbs Bright & Co.