N. H. Gibbs
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Norman Henry Gibbs (17 April 1910, in
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– 20 April 1990, in
Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...
, Oxfordshire) was Chichele Professor of the History of War at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
for 24 years from 1953 to 1977, the longest tenure of all who have held the chair since its establishment in 1909.


Education and early career

Gibbs was an Open Exhibitioner at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1928, becoming Senior Demy in 1928. After completing his bachelor's degree, he continued his graduate studies at Magdalen and while doing so was appointed assistant lecturer at
University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = ÂŁ143 million (2020) , budget = Â ...
in 1934–36. In 1935, Gibbs completed his D.Phil. thesis in medieval history under the direction of
K. B. McFarlane Kenneth Bruce McFarlane, FBA (18 October 1903 – 16 July 1966) was one of the 20th century's most influential historians of late medieval England. Life McFarlane was born on 18 October 1903, the only child of A. McFarlane, OBE. His father was ...
on The history of Reading in the later Middle Ages, considered with special reference to the importance of the gild merchant in mediaeval seigniorial boroughs''. In 1936, he was appointed tutor in modern history at Merton College, Oxford. At the outbreak of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
in 1939, Gibbs joined the
1st King's Dragoon Guards The 1st King's Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment was raised by Sir John Lanier in 1685 as the 2nd Queen's Regiment of Horse, named in honour of Queen Mary, consort of King James II. It was renamed the 2nd Ki ...
. During his military service, he first developed an interest in military history. In 1943, he was one of the first officers to be seconded to the Cabinet Office, at the beginning on the work to write the official history of the war. While in the Cabinet Office, Gibbs wrote a study on British troops in
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during the pre-war years and their preparedness for the campaign against German troops under General Erwin Rommel in the Western Desert. Completing that work, he went on to be an assistant to Professor
W. K. Hancock Sir William Keith Hancock, (26 June 189813 August 1988) was a prominent Australian historian. Early life and education He was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of Archdeacon William Hancock. At the age of nine, he won the Royal Human ...
and wrote a detailed study on the structure of the British government and its relationships to the armed forces from 1850 through the Second World War. After demobilisation, Gibbs returned to his fellowship at Merton College, Oxford, where he taught modern history and philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE). In 1952, he published a revised edition of
A. B. Keith Arthur Berriedale Keith (5 April 1879 – 6 October 1944) was a Scottish constitutional lawyer, scholar of Sanskrit and Indologist. He became Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology and Lecturer on the Constitution of the Brit ...
's ''British Cabinet Government'', making significant additions on the history of the British
War Cabinet A war cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war to efficiently and effectively conduct that war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers, although it is quite common for a war cabinet to have senio ...
. At this time, he began working on the first volume of the official history of Second World War in the ''Grand Strategy'' serie

to be entitled ''Rearmament Policy''.


Chichele Professor

Gibbs's election to the Chichele Chair at the age of 42 marked a turning point in the study of military and naval history at Oxford. All of his predecessors had been career military men, self-trained historians, or journalists. Not only was Gibbs one of Oxford's own academic historians, he was one of the few already established historians in Britain to have direct experience of the most recent historical research and writing within the British armed forces. His appointment marked a very important change by which war history became a respectable academic field and allowed Oxford to play a major role in the development of military and strategic studies throughout the Cold War era, providing additionally an important academic link between Oxford and the armed forces. Gibbs's tenure in the chair developed on three lines: First, he continued the research and writing that he had begun in the Cabinet Office. Second, he promoted closer and more direct educational relationships between Oxford and the armed forces, contributing to better civil-military relations. Third, while primarily interested in military history and
naval history Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large lan ...
, he promoted the development of the new field of strategic studies. Norman Gibb's Inaugural Lecture as Chichele Professor of the History of War was devoted to ''The Origins of the Committee of Imperial Defence''. It quickly became a basic reference for generations of his graduate students. In his work with the uniformed services, he established with a series of courses for officers of the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
to qualify them for further studies at the staff college level. Gibbs's success in this, led him to expand his teaching to include senior officers and to encourage the services to second officers from their regiments to read for undergraduate degrees at Oxford. This led the
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to appoint Gibbs to its Naval Educational Advisory Council, which saw him rise to become its vice-chairman and then chairman. In 1965, Gibbs established an annual series of
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
conferences at St. John's College, Oxford, which brought academics together with senior NATO officials and the
Supreme Allied Commander, Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...
each summer. With Professor
Max Beloff Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, (2 July 1913 – 22 March 1999) was a British historian and Conservative peer. From 1974 to 1979 he was principal of the University College of Buckingham, now the University of Buckingham. Early life Beloff was born ...
, Gibbs began a series of seminars that were the earliest contributions to strategic studies in the United Kingdom. With
Piers Mackesy Piers Gerald Mackesy (15 September 1924 – 30 June 2014) was a British military historian who taught at the University of Oxford. Early life and education Piers Mackesy was born in Cults, near Aberdeen in Scotland, the son of Major-General Pi ...
, he taught the undergraduate special subject in military history and took on the supervision of a wide range of graduate students. In addition, he managed the newly established Visiting Fellows programme at All Souls College, Oxford. He served on the council of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England. The 2017 Global Go To Think ...
, the council of the
Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi), registered as Royal United Service Institute for Defence and Security Studies and formerly the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, is a British defence and security think tank. ...
and was a research associate at the
Center of International Studies The Center of International Studies (CIS) was a research center that was part of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in Princeton, New Jersey. It was founded in 1951 by six scholars who came to Princ ...
at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1965–66. He was Visiting Professor in the Department of History at the
University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Ameri ...
in 1975–76; the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
in 1978–79, and the National University of Singapore in 1981–82. In 1979, the Superintendent of the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
, General Andrew Jackson Goodpaster awarded Gibbs the U.S. Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal for the superb quality of his teaching and in recognition of his many contributions as Chichele professor to military education. Among his graduate student pupils who later become well known were
Colin S. Gray Colin S. Gray (December 29, 1943 – February 27, 2020) was a British-American writer on geopolitics and professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, where he was the director of the Centre for Strategi ...
, John B. Hattendorf, Robert S. Jordan, Malcolm Murfett, Robert O'Neill, George C. Peden, N.A.M. Rodger, Charles S. Townshend, and Jehuda L. Wallach.Many of whom were contributors to John B. Hattendorf and Malcolm H. Murfett, eds., ''The Limitations of Military Power: Essays presented to Professor Norman Gibbs on his eightieth birthday'' (London, 1990).


Published writings

*''Makers of England '' by N. H. Gibbs and L.W.T. Gibbs (1935). *''The British Cabinet system'' by
Arthur Berriedale Keith Arthur Berriedale Keith (5 April 1879 – 6 October 1944) was a Scottish constitutional lawyer, scholar of Sanskrit and Indologist. He became Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology and Lecturer on the Constitution of the Briti ...
. 2nd ed by N. H. Gibbs (1952). *''The origins of imperial defence: an inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Oxford on 8 June 1955'' (1955). *''The Soviet System and Democratic Society'' edited by N. H. Gibbs (1967). *''Grand strategy,'' volume I: ''Rearmament policy'' (1976).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbs, Norman Henry 1910 births 1990 deaths 1st King's Dragoon Guards officers British Army personnel of World War II Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Academics of University College London Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford British military historians Chichele Professors of the History of War Military personnel from London 20th-century British historians