Introduction

Biography

Ada was the daugh­ter of George Ed­ward Rose of Well Street, White­cha­pel, Lon­don, and Ell­en Sten­son Reeve, and wife of Will­iam James Gibbs (mar­ried cir­ca Au­gust 1898, Is­ling­ton, Lon­don). William was at one time su­per­in­ten­dent of the Me­tho­dist Cen­tral Hall in Brom­ley, Kent.

A con­tral­to, Ada sang at Ci­ty Tem­ple, Hol­born, Lon­don, and stu­died at the Ro­yal Aca­de­my of Mu­sic, Ma­ry­le­bone, Lon­don, for five years.

After join­ing Ri­chard D’Oy­ly Carte’s com­pa­ny around 1885, she played the parts of Ka­ti­sha in Gil­bert & Sul­li­van’s The Mi­ka­do; Ruth in The Pi­rates of Pen­zance; Dame Car­ru­thers in The Yeo­men of the Guard; and Duc­hess of Pla­za-To­ro in The Gon­do­liers.

Gibbs part­ed ways with D’Oy­ly Carte around 1890, and be­gan work­ing with the Sal­va­tion Ar­my. She al­so sang with Dwight Moo­dy’s evan­gel­is­tic mis­sions, and was ap­par­ent­ly was part of the Kes­wick Con­ven­tion mov­ement.

Works

• Twenty-Four Gems of Sac­red Song, 1900