Frederick Gilbert was the brother of Sir John Gilbert, R.A. He seems to have been a reclusive sort of man, very little is known about his life.

All of Frederick Gilbert’s work was done for the publisher John Dicks in his various publications. He illustrated the serials of Malcolm J. Errym (James Malcolm Rymer), and Edward Ellis (C. H. Ross & Ernest Warren) for Reynolds’s Miscellany as well as many serials for John Dicks’ Bow Bells, Every Week and The Boy’s Herald.

He illustrated a number of novels by G. W. M. Reynolds and contributed to many of Dicks’ English Library of Standard Works which included titles by Ainsworth, Lord Lytton, G. P. R. James and Sir Walter Scott.