Background
Gibson was born in Manchester on 4 July 1924 and educated at Chorlton High School and at the Universities of Oxford and London (London School of Economics).
Gibson was born in Manchester on 4 July 1924 and educated at Chorlton High School and at the Universities of Oxford and London (London School of Economics).
Chorlton Grammar School, Wadham College, Oxford, London School of Economics Colonial Administration Sendee, Malaya 1948-1958.
Early in World World War II, Gibson joined the Home Guard, although under-age, and subsequently joined the Army as a volunteer at age 18. After officer training at Catterick and commissioning into the Royal Signals, he served with Mountbatten"s headquarters in India and Ceylon from 1944 during the Burma Campaign. Late in the campaign, Gibson was posted to Akyab Island and then to Rangoon immediately after the Japanese had evacuated from there.
He served in the British Colonial Administrative Service in Malaya from 1948 to 1958.
He returned to London to work at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority until 1967. He became Deputy Director of the ESRO Technical Centre (ESTEC), until 1971 when he became Director of Administration for ESRO. From 1974 he was Acting Director General of ESRO, and oversaw the transition of the two previous organisations ESRO and ELDO to form European Space Agency in 1975.
Mr Gibson was the first Director General of the British National Space Centre from 1985 to 1987. Since then he has served as an aerospace consultant to the European Union Commission and has worked on the setting up of the European Environment Agency.
In 1977, Gibson received the Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria.
Married Inga Elgerus in 1971.