Sir John Watson GibsonOBE (9 August 1885 – 19 March 1947) was anEnglishcivil engineer. He designed dams inEngland and inAnglo-Egyptian Sudan and port installations in England andIreland. In the UK he is most notable for having designed a key part of theMulberry harbours for the 1944Normandy landings.^[1][2]

Gibson was born inMiddlesbrough in 1885 and educated atMiddlesbrough School for Boys. He was apprenticed toS Pearson & Son, with whom he assisted in the building of new concretejetties at the docks inSouthampton,Fenit in Ireland for access toTralee, and the newKing George Dock inKingston upon Hull.^[1]

Having what was designated an essential skill, Gibson was refused permission to serve in combat with theBritish Army. The Army lent him to theMinistry of Munitions, for whom in 1916 he went to theUnited States as Director General of shell and gun supply. He returned to the UK in 1917 and became controller of Aircraft Requirements and Review. For his services to his country Gibson was appointed anOfficer of the British Empire (OBE) in 1918.^[1]

After the war Gibson specialised inreservoirs andwater supply. In the 1920s he designed theQueen Mary Reservoir atStanwell,Middlesex, which when completed in 1925 the largest water storage reservoir in the World. While working there he boughtStanwell Place, which came with 90 acres (36 ha) of land, and the adjoining Stanhope and Hammonds farms, which between them totalled 261 acres (106 ha).^[1]

Gibson's estate totalled 346 acres (140 ha) when in 1936 theMetropolitan Water Board bought most of it^[3] to build theKing George VI Reservoir.^[1]

Gibson was Pearson's site agent for theSennar Dam inSudan.^[4] In 1933 he entered into partnership withPauling & Co.,^[5] forming Gibson and Pauling (Foreign) Ltd in 1933 to build theJebel Aulia Dam on theWhite Nile, also in Sudan, which was the largest dam in the world at that time.^[1] After completing the Jebel Aulia Dam, Gibson became managing director of Pauling & Co, a position he held until his death in March 1947.

At the outbreak of theSecond World War, Gibson offered his services as an engineer to his country. For the duration of the war his family moved to a more rural location, and Gibson lent Stanwell Place to theUnited States Army High Command. It was used for two high level meetings of theSupreme Allied Command of GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower held in late June and mid-July 1944, with attendees includingHenry Stimson,George Marshall, and AdmiralErnest King.^[1]

After the agreement to proceed with a design for the Mulberry harbours for the 1944 Normandy landings, Gibson created the detailed design for thePhoenix breakwaters.^[1] Under the direction of Major General Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, Gibson oversaw the fabrication of the Concrete Phoenix Caissons across Southern England and created the special 'Winterization' process to safeguard the breakwaters during the winter of 1944.

After the war Gibson decided due to his age to change his professional focus, designing in collaboration with theBritish Iron and Steel Federation, two prototype steel framedprefab houses to house families made homeless by enemy action. Eventually more than 30,000BISF houses were built.^[1]

Gibson died aged 61 in 1947 and is buried in Stanwell Burial Ground.^[1] In 1948 his estate sold Stanwell Place with its residual 22 acres (9 ha) to KingFaisal II of Iraq. In 1956 Faisal II still owned Stanwell Place and Gibson's sons still owned the residual 17 acres (7 ha) of Stanhope farm.^[3]

Gibson's widow Lady Lilian died in 1962 and is buried with him.^[1]

In 2015, the Happy Landing pub in Clare Road, Stanwell was renamed the "Sir John Gibson".^[6]

• Reynolds, Susan, ed. (1962).A History of the County of Middlesex.Victoria County History. Vol. III. London:Oxford University Press for theInstitute of Historical Research. pp. 36–41.

• 1885 births
• 1947 deaths
• English civil engineers
• Knights Bachelor
• Officers of the Order of the British Empire
• People from Middlesbrough
• Military personnel from North Yorkshire
• British Army soldiers
• British Army personnel of World War I

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