Violet Gibson

Violet Gibson
Violet Gibson
Born Violet Albina Gibson
31 August 1876
Dublin, Ireland
Died 2 May 1956 (aged 79)
Northampton, England, UK
Resting place
 Kingsthorpe, England, UK
Parent(s) The 1st Baron Ashbourne and Frances Maria Adelaide Colles

The Honourable Violet Albina Gibson (31 August 1876 – 2 May 1956), the daughter of Lord Ashbourne, is best known for shooting Benito Mussolini in Rome in 1926.

Early life

Gibson was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1876. Her father was an Irish lawyer and politician, Edward Gibson who was created Baron Ashbourne in 1886. She became a Roman Catholic in 1902.

In Rome in 1925 she shot herself in the chest.

Shooting of Mussolini

On 7 April 1926, Violet Gibson shot Mussolini, Italy's Fascist leader, while he sat in a car in the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome after leaving an assembly of the International Congress of Surgeons, to whom he had delivered a speech on the wonders of modern medicine.[1] Gibson shot him three times, twice hitting him in the nose. She was almost lynched on the spot by an angry mob, but police intervened and took her off for questioning. Mussolini was wounded only slightly and after his nose was bandaged he continued his parade on the Capitoline.

At the time of the assassination attempt she was almost fifty years old and did not explain her reason for trying to assassinate Mussolini. It has been theorised that Gibson was insane at the time of the attack and the idea of assassinating Mussolini was hers and that she worked alone. She was later deported[2] to Britain after being released without charge at the request of Mussolini. She spent the rest of her life in a mental asylum, St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton.[3] She is buried in Kingsthorpe Cemetery, Northampton.

Her gravestone in Kingsthorpe Cemetery

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Mussolini Trionfante", Time Magazine, 19 April 1926.
  2. ↑ Bosworth, R.J.B., Mussolini, 2002, pp 218-219
  3. ↑ Mussolini's nose, bbc.co.uk; accessed 8 July 2014.

External links