N. H. Gibbs - Education and Early Career

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 in 1934–36. In 1935, Gibbs completed his D.Phil. thesis in medieval history under the direction of K. B. McFarlane 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 World War II in 1939, Gibbs joined the 1st King's Dragoon Guards. During his military service, he first developed an interested 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 Egypt 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 and wrote a detailed study on the structure of the British government and its relationships to the armed forces from 1850 through World War II. 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's British Cabinet Government, making significant additions on the history of the British War Cabinet. At this time, he began working on the first volume of the official history of World War II in the Grand Strategy series, to be entitled Rearmament Policy.