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Sir John Watson Gibson OBE (9 August 1885 - 19 March 1947) was a civil engineering contractor who built the Sennar  and Gebel Aulia Dams in Sudan and coordinated the construction of the Phoenix concrete caisson breakwaters for the 'artificial' Mulberry Harbours

Early Life
John Watson (Jack) Gibson was born on 9 August 1885 at 27 Pembroke Street, Middlesbrough, the second son of Robert Elwin Gibson, an accountant with Dorman Long, and his wife Ruth Eleanor Hugill. Educated at Middlesbrough High School for Boys, he began his career as a civil engineering contractor under the pupilage of Sir John Scott between 1900 and 1908. He worked on the Middlesbrough Dock contract and one of the Hudersfield Corporation reservoirs. After this, for another contractor, he was in charge of the construction of reinforced concrete jetties at Southampton and Tralee in Ireland. In 1910 he embarked on a what was to be a fifteen year association with Lord Cowdray and S. Pearson & Son working on the construction of King George V Dock, Hull.

World War I
During the First World War (1914-1918) Gibson was loaned by Lord Cowdray to the Ministry of Munitions which was formed in 1915. Initially he worked on the production of small arms. In 1916 he went out to the United States as Director General of Shell and Gun Supply. In March 1917 he accompanied Sir Frederick Black on a technical mission to India as his technical assistant. In June 1917 of he became Controller of Aircraft Requirement and Review at the Air Ministry. He was appointed O.B.E. in 1918.

Between the Wars
At the close of hostilities he went to work for Lord Weir under whom he had served at the Ministry of Munitions, but shortly afterward Lord Cowdray secured his services once more. Firstly he worked on the construction of the Queen Mary Reservoir at Staines (the largest water storage reservoir in the world at that time). Following this he went out to Sudan as Contractor's Agent to start work in December 1922 on the construction of the Sennar Dam, which was part of the Sudan Government’s Gezira Irrigation Scheme on the Blue Nile. The dam's construction was completed ahead of programme in May 1925 and the associated canalisation at the end of that June. Lord Cowdray, to mark both the timely completion of the dam in May 1925 and his retirement, gave Gibson the gift of the £100,000 worth of civil engineering plant used to build the dam. This gift enabled Gibson to go into business on his own and he undertook further schemes at the request of the Sudan government. Having completed a large excavation contract for the extension of the canalisation, he was joined by his brother and together they constructed the Sennar Dam aprons, further considerable canalisation extension works in the Gezira, and the salt works at Port Sudan. Then in 1933 he tendered, together with Balfour Beatty, Pauling & Co., and Sir Evan Jones and Abboud Pasha, for the contract to build the Gebel Aulia Dam on the White Nile. Gibson’s tender for this contract was £3,500 higher than that of Pauling & Co.’s tender of £2,074,581, but due to different interpretations of the contract term and conditions the initial contract sums were not strictly comparable. It would appear, however that Gibson's experience and reputation within the area worked to his favour and the contract was awarded to him on the condition that he formed a consortium with another company that had done similar work and which was financially sound. Accordingly he formed a joint venture with Paulings, under the name of Gibson & Pauling (Foreign) Ltd., in 1933. On completion of this work in 1937, Gibson joined the board of Pauling & Co.

World War II
With the outbreak of war in 1939, Gibson again offered his services to his country, and in October 1939 he was appointed to the unpaid post of Assistant Director of Ordnance Factories (Construction) at the Ministry of Supply in which capacity he was responsible for the construction of the Royal Ordinance Factories. In 1941 he became Technical Adviser to the Board of Trade, where he was responsible for the provision and layout of storage sites for colliery produced coal and on initiating the open-cast coal workings. Then in September 1943, at the instigation of his friend Major General Sir Harold Wernher, who was Co-ordinator of Ministry and Service Facilities he was appointed Deputy Director General of Civil Engineering (Special)  at the Ministry of Supply. His task was to direct and co-ordinate the construction of the “Phoenix” breakwater units for the Mulberry harbours. In recognition for this work he was created a Knight Bachelor in the King’s Birthday honours of July 1945.

Whilst the invasion of the Normandy was in its early stages Gibson lent his home, Stanwell Place, to the American high command. It was used as the venue for two high level meetings of the Supreme Allied Command held in late June and the middle of July 1944. Henry L. Stimson, General George Marshall, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Admiral Ernest King were amongst those who were present at these meetings and who stayed at Stanwell Place. In appreciation of the Gibson hospitality, General Marshal presented them with his personal standard. Shortly afterwards General Eisenhower wrote to the Gibsons from Normandy stating that at the request of the American high command he was forwarding a silver plaque duly inscribed to be attached to this standard.

Later Years
After the completion of Phoenix Gibson continued to concern himself with the needs of the Nation. In collaboration with the British Iron and Steel Federation, he formed a group of contractors, who erected over 30,000 “prefab” houses. Until recently two prototypes, named Mulberry and Phoenix, which he had built on his land, were still standing in Town Lane, Stanwell, Middlesex. His last task was in connection with the Ground Nuts Scheme, in Tanganyika, but almost immediately his fell ill and died in London on 19 March 1947 at the early age of 61. A memorial service was held in St Margaret’s Westminster on 26 March 1947.

Personal Life
He was a man with a human touch, not overawed by the great, yet able get on with anyone. He met many and knew some of the great and the good of his generation. Through the course of his work within government he met with no lesser people than Winston Churchill and David Lloyd-George, as well as other eminent people in government. Whilst working in the Sudan he entertained King Leopard of the Belgians at crocodile shooting on the Nile, as well as the then Duke and Duchess of York. He came to know Abdel Rahman El Mahdi and his family well whilst in the Sudan. When he was in America in 1917 he came to know Thomas Edison. On one occasion, travelling across France and Italy by train, he spent most of the journey talking to Marconi. Having come to know Howard Carter he was one of the first people to see inside the tomb of Tutankhamen. At an official dinner during the war he introduced himself to Wing Commander Guy Gibson with “my name’s Gibson build dams and you bust them.” Yet he provided a home and work back in England for one of the crane drivers who had worked with him on the Sudanese and Egyptian contracts. And Maisie Webster, a local labour councillor, who was earlier the Gibsons’ cook, told me that despite their different political beliefs there was the greatest mutual respect between her and Sir John.

As a Yokshireman, Gibson was an avid cricketer. He was a member of Yorkshire, Middlesex and Surrey County Cricket Clubs and was a great friend of many of the top players of the time, including Wilfred Rhodes, Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy (Bill) Fender. On the Sunday of the famous Oval test match against Australia in 1938 the Yorkshire element of the M.C.C. team, including Len Hutton (who was mid way through his record breaking innings), spent the day at Gibson’s home, Stanwell Place. Family history has it that Hutton spent most of that Sunday sleeping on a sofa. If Gibson was not attending the Scarborough Cricket Festival during his summer holiday, he would often be found organising ‘beach’ cricket matches for his family and any other unsuspecting holiday maker in his area of Scarborough beach. To enable his adopted village of Stanwell to be able to play ‘the game’, he gave some of his land to the village to be used as Stanwell Cricket Club’s cricket ground. Gibson’s other recreations were polo, horse racing, golf and running his farm.

Gibson married Lillian, daughter of John Armstrong, blacksmith, and Sarah of Linthorpe, Middlesbrough in 1911; there were two sons, Jack and Hugh, and three daughters, Grace, Kathleen and Mary.

Vice-Admiral (then Captain) Howard Hickling, who was the liaison between the Admiralty and Sir Harold Wernher, is quoted as making this tribute to John Gibson. “On his headstone a suitable epitaph would have been

“He Built 147 Ships in 147 Days”

As an alternative I would like to misquote part of his favourite poem, “IF” by Rudyard Kipling:

“He Talked with Crowds and Kept His Virtue, And Walked With Kings And Kept The Common Touch.”