Lilian Gibbs was the first woman to climb Mount Kinabalu completing her ascent on February 24th, 1910.
Lilian Gibbs arrived in British North Borneo at the end of December, 1909. She was advised by the Governor, Mr. H.P. Guerlitz, to defer her ascent of Mt. Kinabalu until somewhat later, because the rainy season was still in progress, and because the Dusuns who would serve as her porters were busy with their padi harvest. Consequently she took the train from Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu) to Tenom where she began her collecting programme. She travelled on horseback from Tenom through Keningau, Apin Apin and Tambunan. From a little beyond Tambunan the trail through Renagong and Bundu Tuhan to Kiau had to be negotiated on foot. Gibbs was probably the first person to take this route for the purpose of making an ascent of Mt. Kinabalu, and much of the area had never previously been visited by botanists. Upon arrival in Kiau, the weather still being too rainy for her to make an ascent of Kinabalu, she collected around Kiau, and on the Gurulau and Marai Parai spurs. On February 22, 1910, the weather having improved, Gibbs began her ascent to the summit. Departing Kiau with a party of 35, she reached Kamborongoh on the first day and Paka Cave on the second. On the following day, February 24th she reached the summit of Low’s Peak.
Lilian Suzette Gibbs was born in London, England on September 10, 1870. She was educated at private schools in England and on the European Continent. In 1899 she began two years of training at Swanley Horticultural College and then studied botany at the royal college of Science. Upon completing an advanced course there she began, as a lady of independent means, her career of research and travel.
Lilian Gibbs was among the most remarkable field naturalists of her, or any, time. She spent a good portion of her life organizing and leading botanical field expeditions to some of the most remote and inaccessible places on earth, along the way becoming a leading authority on high altitude vegetation and floras. Among the places she visited were South Africa & Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) (1905), Fiji & New Zealand (1907), British North Borneo (Sabah, Malaysia) (1909-10), Iceland (1912), Dutch New Guinea (Papua, Indonesia) (1913), Queensland & Tasmania, Australia (1914-15).
In 1910 she was awarded the Huxley Gold Medal and Prize by the Royal College of Science for her research contributions as a student. She was one of the earliest women fellows of the Linnean Society, the Royal Microscopical Society and the Royal Geographical Society.
Lilian Suzette Gibbs died in Santa Cruz, Tenerife in the Canary Islands on January 30, 1925. She was 54 years of age and had suffered ill health for several years.
Excerpted from John H. Beaman’s introduction to Lilian Gibbs’ “A Contribution to the Flora and Plant Formations of Mount Kinabalu and the Highlands of British North Borneo”
