Gibson, Perla Siedle (d. 1971)

South African pianist and concert singer, known as "The Lady in White" during World War II. Name variations: The Lady in White. Died in 1971; married; several children, including daughter Joy Liddiard.

Known as "The Lady in White," Perla Siedle Gibson was a classical pianist and concert singer as well as a volunteer at a dockside canteen at Durban harbor, a South African port for troopships carrying millions of soldiers during World War II. In April 1940, while she was minding the canteen in her regulation white overalls, a soldier aboard one of the giant ships shouted down to her, "Hey Ma, sing us a song! Give us 'Land of Hope and Glory!'" Gibson obliged the young man by cupping her hands around her mouth and sending the patriotic song soaring up toward the ship, while delighted soldiers joined in the chorus. She continued with an impromptu concert of songs from the Great War, including "Pack Up Your Troubles," and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." From that day forward, she serenaded every convoy—a total of 20,000 ships and three million men—that entered port, never missing a day, even after she learned of her own son's death in action while serving in Italy. Following Gibson's death in 1971, newspapers throughout the world ran stories about this middle-aged woman who lifted the spirits of, and gave hope to, so many frightened and homesick young men. An adaptation of Gibson's original autobiography, Durban's Lady in White, which had gone out of print, was published in 1991, with a foreword and postscript by her daughter Joy Liddiard .