 The Gibbons family originated in Ireland . Stella 's grandfather , Charles Preston Gibbons , was a civil engineer who spent long periods in South Africa building bridges . He and his wife Alice had six children , the second of whom — the eldest of four sons — was born in 1869 and was known by his fourth Christian name of " Telford " . The Gibbons household was a turbulent one , with tensions arising from Charles Gibbons 's frequent <unk> . Telford Gibbons trained as a doctor , and qualified as a physician and surgeon at the London Hospital in 1897 . On 29 September 1900 he married Maude Williams , the daughter of a stockbroker . The couple bought a house in Malden Crescent , Kentish Town , a working @-@ class district of North London , where Telford established the medical practice in which he continued for the remainder of his life . 
