David Gilmour - Personal Life

Personal Life

Gilmour's first marriage was to American-born model and artist Virginia "Ginger" Hasenbein, on 7 July 1975. He had four children from this union, Alice (born 1976), Clare (born 1979), Sara (born 1983, a fashion model), and Matthew (born 1986). The children originally attended a Waldorf School, but Gilmour called their education there "horrific". In 1994, he married journalist Polly Samson, and the couple have four children, Charlie (Samson's son with Heathcote Williams whom Gilmour adopted), Joe, Gabriel and Romany. Charlie's voice can be heard on the telephone to Steve O'Rourke, at the end of "High Hopes" (The Division Bell).

Gilmour has been associated with various charity organisations. In May 2003, Gilmour sold his house in Little Venice to the ninth Earl Spencer and donated the proceeds worth £3.6 million to Crisis to help fund a housing project for the homeless. He has been named a vice president of the organization. Other charities to which Gilmour has lent support include Oxfam, the European Union Mental Health and Illness Association, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, The Lung Foundation, Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, Teenage Cancer Trust, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He also donated £25,000 to the Save the Rhino foundation in exchange for Douglas Adams's name suggestion for the album that became The Division Bell.

Gilmour is also an experienced pilot and aviation enthusiast. Under the aegis of his company, Intrepid Aviation, he had amassed a collection of historical aircraft. He later decided to sell the company, which he had started as a hobby, feeling that it was becoming too commercial for him to handle. In a BBC interview, he stated:

Intrepid Aviation was a way for me to make my hobby pay for itself a little bit, but gradually over a few years Intrepid Aviation became a business because you have to be businesslike about it. Suddenly I found instead of it being a hobby and me enjoying myself, it was a business and so I sold it. I don't have Intrepid Aviation any more. I just have a nice old biplane that I pop up, wander around the skies in sometimes...

David Gilmour has stated in interviews that he doesn't believe in an afterlife and that he is an atheist.

On 22 May 2008, Gilmour won the 2008 Ivor Novello Lifetime Contribution Award.

In autumn 2008, he was awarded for outstanding contribution for music by the Q Awards. He dedicated his award to his bandmate Richard Wright, who died in September 2008.

On 11 November 2009, Gilmour received an honorary doctorate from the Anglia Ruskin University.