Roy Gibson (born 4 July 1924) is a former Director General of

ESRO The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a ...

, and the first Director General of ESA, serving from 1975 until 1980.

Early years

Gibson was born in Manchester on 4 July 1924 and educated at

Chorlton High School Chorlton High School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England. It has around 1500 pupils and 300 in each year. History Grammar school There was a "Chorlton High School" in th ...

and at the Universities of Oxford and London (

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

). Early in World War II, Gibson joined the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

, 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 The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

, he served with

Mountbatten The Mountbatten family is a British dynasty that originated as an English branch of the German princely Battenberg family. The name was adopted on 14 July 1917, three days before the British royal family changed its name to “Windsor”, by ...

's headquarters in India and Ceylon from 1944 during the Burma Campaign. Late in the campaign, Gibson was posted to

Akyab Island Sittwe (; ; formerly Akyab) is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe, pronounced ''sait-tway'' in the Rakhine language, is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers empt ...

and then to

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

immediately after the Japanese had evacuated from there. He served in the British Colonial Administrative Service in Malaya from 1948 to 1958.

Career

He returned to London to work at the

UK Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

until 1967. He became Deputy Director of the ESRO Technical Centre (ESTEC), until 1971 when he became Director of Administration for

. From 1974 he was Acting Director General of ESRO, and oversaw the transition of the two previous organisations ESRO and ELDO to form the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

(ESA) in 1975. Gibson was the first Director General of the

British National Space Centre The British National Space Centre (BNSC) was an agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, organised in 1985, that coordinated civil space activities for the United Kingdom. It was replaced on 1 April 2010 by the United Kingdom Space Age ...

from 1985 to 1987. From 1987 to 1992 he worked at INMARSAT, and then at

EUMETSAT The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States. EUMETSAT's primary ...

. Since then he has served as an aerospace consultant to the ESA and the EU Commission, and has worked on the setting up of the

European Environment Agency The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment. Definition The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides i ...

. In 1977, Gibson received the Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria

References

Sources

European Space Agency

External links

Listen to an oral history interview with Roy Gibson
- a life story interview recorded for the

National Life Stories National Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the ‘National Life Story Collection’) based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. S ...

project Oral History of British Science at the British Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Roy 1924 births Living people People from Chorlton-cum-Hardy European Space Agency personnel Alumni of the London School of Economics Recipients of the Grand Decoration with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria Royal Corps of Signals officers British Home Guard soldiers British Army personnel of World War II Scientists from Manchester British people in colonial India British expatriates in Sri Lanka