PHOTO: poster for the exhibition dedicated to Gibbes at Ganina Yama

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Sydney Gibbes (1876-1963), the tutor to the children of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

On 15th July 2026, an exhibition dedicated to the English tutor, opened at the Museum and Exhibition Center – located in the Church of the Reigning Mother of God – of the Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers in Ganina Yama.

The opening of the exhibition “From Throne to Throne“, was attended by Bishop Meliton of Nizhny Tagil and Nevyansk. Vasily Vladimirovich Zapariy, Ph.D. in History, Senior Researcher at the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and lecturer at the Ural Federal University, gave a presentation on the photography in Tsarist Russia. Also taking part in the event was Viktor Vladimirovich Leonidov, historian and researcher of Russian emigration.

Tutor to the Tsar’s children

Charles Sydney Gibbes was born (he was one of 11 children) in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England on 19th January 1876. In 1901 he went to St Petersburg, Russia, as tutor to the children of the Shidlovsky family. In 1908, he gained the attention of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who invited Gibbes to improve the accents of the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana; and subsequently Maria and Anastasia. In 1913 he became tutor to Tsesarevich Alexei. The August children fell in love with their tutor, referred to him in the formal and respectful Russian style as “Sydney Ivanovich”.

Gibbes’ career as court tutor continued until the February Revolution of 1917. Following the Tsar;s abdication, the Imperial family were held under house arrest in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. Gibbes was in St Petersburg at the time, and immediately after returning to Tsarskoye Selo was forbidden from seeing the Imperial Family. He was only allowed to recover his possessions after the Imperial Family had been sent into exile to Tobolsk in Siberia.

Gibbes voluntarily followed the Tsar and his family, arriving in Tobolsk in October 1917 shortly before the Provisional Government fell to the Bolsheviks. In exile, he continued to give lessons to the Tsar’s children, and also staged amateur plays in order to somehow brighten the day to days of the prisoners, during the long Siberian winter.

In the Spring of 1918, when the Imperial Family were transferred to Ekaternburg, it would be the last time Gibbes saw the the Tsar and his August pupils. The family were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House, and forced to live under appalling conditions. Gibbes was forbidden to visit the Imperial Family. The news of the murder of the Imperial Family shook the Englishman to the core.

Click on the image to watch a short VIDEO about the life of Charles Sydney Gibbes.

Language: *Russian. Duration: 2 minutes, 28 seconds

For English (or other language) subtitles – click on the
Closed Captioning [CC] button, then click on Google Translate

Return to England

In July 1928, Gibbes left Russia and returned to England. In April 1934, he was received into the Orthodox church in Harbin, China. Gibbes took the baptismal name of Alexei in honour of the former Tsesarevich. He was tonsured a monk on 15th December, ordained deacon on 19th December and priest on 23rd December, taking the name Nicholas in honour of the former Tsar. In March 1935 he became an Abbot. He returned to England in 1937 and was established in a parish in London.

Gibbes remained selflessly devoted to the Imperial Family even years after their death: all his life he revered the sovereign as a saint and believed that in eternity they were destined to meet again.

Gibbes died at St Pancras Hospital, London, on 24 March 1963. His open coffin was displayed in the cellar (or crypt) of Saint Nicholas House before his funeral. He is buried in Headington cemetery, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.

Russia honours Charles Sydney Gibbes

In 2025, a new Russian-language documentary-film entitled The Tsesarevich’s Mentor. The Story of Sydney Gibbes, was released.

The film tells the story of Englishman Charles Sydney Gibbes (1876-1963), a Cambridge graduate who arrived in Russia in 1901. Gibbes lived and worked in St. Petersburg, and from 1908 he served as an English teacher for the children of Emperor Nicholas II – first for the Grand Duchesses, and later for Tsesarevich Alexei.

On 16th July 2026, a *full-length article appeared in one Russian-language media outlet. Gibbes life is examined by a Eussian, who introduces the English tutor’s life at the Imperial Court during the early 20th century to a new generation of Russians.

*Note: the FULL Russian languarge article will be translated and published in English in SOVEREIGN No. 18 Winter 2027, which will be published in December 2026, and available from AMAZON.

In August 1917, Gibbes voluntarily followed the Imperial Family into exile to Tobolsk. And after their tragic death

FURTHER READING

Romanov archives of Charles Sydney Gibbes + PHOTOS

Charles Sydney Gibbes (1876-1963) + PHOTOS and VIDEO

© Paul Gilbert. 28 July 2026