Jane Gibbons

Infobox character
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name = Jane Gibbons
series = Richard Sharpe


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first = "Sharpe's Regiment"
last = "Sharpe's Waterloo"
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creator = Bernard Cornwell
portrayer = Abigail Cruttenden
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gender = Female
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death = 1844?
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family = Christian Gibbons(brother, deceased), Henry Simmerson(uncle)
spouse = Richard Sharpe(separated)
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nationality = English
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Jane Gibbons (formerly Sharpe) is a fictional character in the "Sharpe" novels written by Bernard Cornwell. She appears in the television adaptation of the novels in which she is played by Abigail Cruttenden.

Character profile

Jane is first mentioned in the very first Sharpe novel, "Sharpe's Eagle", in which Sharpe encounters her sadistic brother Christian. After Gibbons' death (at the hands of Sharpe's friend Patrick Harper), Sharpe finds he is wearing a locket containing a photo of Jane, signed "God keep you. Love, Jane" and wonders if she knows what her brother was like. (Sharpe would wear the locket himself for some time afterwards before losing it while he was a prisoner of Ducos in "Sharpe's Honour".

At some point in between "Sharpe's Gold" and "Sharpe's Company", Sharpe and Harper met Jane off-page during a visit to England. She makes her full debut in the series in "Sharpe's Regiment" where Sharpe and Harper encounter her again while back in England investigating the apparent disappearance of the South Essex Regiment's Second Battalion. The battalion is being used for illegal soldier auctions by Jane's uncle Henry Simmerson, an old enemy of Sharpe's. Jane herself is eking out a miserable existence in Simmerson's country house, unwillingly engaged to the battalion's arrogant and incompetent commander Bartholomew Girdwood. She explains to Sharpe that her parents died when she was thirteen and she went to live with Simmerson and his wife, her mother's sister. Since her father was a commoner, Simmerson considers her an embarrassment and keeps her away from high society. After Sharpe puts an end to the auctions, he takes Jane back to Spain with them where they marry.

Jane plays only a small role in the following novel, "Sharpe's Siege" in which Sharpe is alarmed to discover she has been visiting his friend Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Hogan, who is sick with fever, and fears she has been infected. When he returns from the mission that is the main focus of the book, he finds he was mistaken.

The following book, "Sharpe's Revenge", sees a major change in Jane's character. With the Peninsular War nearing an end, Sharpe sends Jane back to England to procure a house in the country. Disliking the idea, she instead buys an expensive and gaudy London town house and is seduced by the wealth of high society previously denied her. When she hears Sharpe has been arrested on suspicion of theft, she initially tries to help him but when it appears he has murdered Commandant Lassan, a man who might have given evidence against him, she sees it as license to begin an affair with Lord John Rossendale. The affair is discovered by Harper and Peter D'Alembord when they come to Jane with a message from Sharpe, during which Jane gleefully watches as Rossendale horsewhips Harper. When Sharpe's name is cleared, Jane and Rossendale are fearful he will come looking for him, not least because Jane has withdrawn a large sum of money from his account.

Jane accompanies Rossendale to Belgium in "Sharpe's Waterloo" but finds herself shunned by society since she is only Rossendale's mistress. She attends the Duchess of Richmond's ball with him where they have a violent encounter with Sharpe. She then encourages Rossendale to kill Sharpe using the confusion of battle so that they may marry. She has not told anyone that she is pregnant with Rossendale's child, an idea that appalls her. At the end of the book, she is left to await the news of Rossendale's death at Waterloo.

The fate of Jane and her child is unknown, although she is referred to as still being alive at the time of "Sharpe's Devil". In his book "The Sharpe Companion", Mark Adkin claims Jane died in 1844, presumably of natural causes, but this has not been confirmed in any novel.

Television

In the Sharpe's television series, Jane's character arc stays very close to that of the novels. She and Sharpe are familiar with each other in "Sharpe's Regiment" but she has not been mentioned previously and how they met before is never stated:although her brother appeared in the television version of "Sharpe's Eagle" he is not mentioned there and indeed their relationship is never explicitly confirmed (although it can be inferred from their shared surname and uncle in Simmerson). In "Sharpe's Siege", Jane does contract fever, rather than Sharpe merely fearing she has, and is already ill when he leaves(here she visits Major-General Ross rather than Hogan, who had already left the series). When he returns he finds she recovered thanks to Wellington acquiring some quinine from the Spanish. In this episode she is also seen working as an assistant to the regimental surgeon, Kenefick and her wedding to Sharpe, unlike in the books, occurs onscreen towards the beginning. In "Sharpe's Revenge", Jane's betrayal of Sharpe is partly motivated by his breaking a promise to not fight again after Toulouse when he challenges Colonel Wigram to a duel.

In addition to the television adaptations of the four novels she appeared in, Jane is present in two stories unique to the television series. In "Sharpe's Mission", set after "Sharpe's Siege", she is shown to already be disenchanted with the soldier's life that seems destined to always be Sharpe's lot and is easily seduced by the arrival of the superficially cultured poet Shellington. She appears to contemplate an affair with him in Sharpe's absence but sees through him when Harris reveals that the poem he has supposedly written about her is plagiarised and reconciles with Sharpe at the end. In "Sharpe's Justice", Jane accompanies Rossendale to a property left for him by a recently deceased aunt and in doing so encounters Sharpe, who is in the area commanding the Scarsdale Yeomanry. (Ironically, a position assigned to him by Rossendale's connivance in order to keep him away from London.) Jane and Rossendale seem eager to take advantage of Sir Willoughby Parfitt's schemes to bankrupt and buy out mills but fail when Sharpe exposes his methods. Afterwards, Jane tells Sharpe that Rossendale will obtain him release from his post in exchange for him leaving them alone.