there is the fact that you are dealing with family, and that means that there are special relationships. On the other hand, business is business.'' Dr. Grant Gibbons wishes it to be known that he is speaking in general terms when he talks of family relationships in a business and he emphasises that the Gibbons family get on extremely well with one another.

In a family business there is always the risk that someone is being carried, that a particular relative is only where he is because the other members of the family do not have the heart or perhaps the courage, to remove him or her.

In the Gibbons family it seems that each of the family members has a particular gift that he brings to the organisation.

Although formal meetings are not a daily occurrence, the family members are always in touch -- always in and out of each other's office, swapping ideas and proposals which in a conglomerate such as the Gibbons empire is vital.

And in a family, is the exchange of ideas more likely to be blunt, or more likely to be couched in diplomatic terms, to avoid hurting feelings? Dr. Gibbons says mutual respect is the key and the family members are all aware of that fact. And that avoids the friction? ''Well, yes'' says Grant.

The Gibbons family can claim to have one of the longest connections with Bermuda. The family affiliation with Bermuda started when one William Gibbons who was master of the "Resistance'' and docked the vessel in St. George's harbour in 1612.

From that day on the Gibbons family name pops up regularly in Bermuda's historical records; and in occupations as varied as one can imagine -- carpenters, masons, even a constable of a Parish. But the Gibbons name appears mainly in the records of Bermuda's sailors.

In the early 1900s the then head of a branch of the Gibbons family was presumed lost at sea and his "widow'' braced herself for a lonely life rearing a large family alone, but fate had been bluffing -- the lost Eddie Gibbons returned home eventually in 1910.

When Edmund and his brother Morris opened a shoe repair store on Queen Street, it was not their first venture together -- but it was the one that prospered.

With the first shoe stitching machine on the Island, the brothers realised that they had found a niche.

Encouraged, Edmund (with his wife Winifred's warm support) opened the Woman's Shop on Reid Street in 1923, more or less opposite the present site of the business.

Three children were born to Edmund and Winifred over the years: Graham, David, and Patsy (now Patsy Phillips).

The brothers' business successes over the years are now part of a Bermuda financial legend, with the modest Woman's Shop being overshadowed by the growing Gibbons' financial empire.

With two brothers at the top of the Gibbons family tree, Sir David and Graham, and four boys -- James, David Jr., Tom, and Grant - the likelihood of personality clashes must be large, but Grant says firmly that this is certainly not the case in what some observers describe as the most financially powerful family on the Island.

History does not record whether, over the ages, the numerous members of the Gibbons family ever fell out with one another, or always agreed with each others business plans. These days, though, it seems that diplomacy and tact rule the day on Reid Street.

GATHERING OF GIBBONS' -- Family involvement in the Gibbons business group remains strong, as the third generation of the family are active in the company, along with their fathers. Pictured from left, are James Gibbons, head of Gibbons Financial Services, Dr. Grant Gibbons, managing director of Gibbons Company, his father Graham, and Tom Gibbons, company secretary. Missing from the photograph are the Hon. Sir David Gibbons and his third son, David Jr., who runs the family's car business.