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Sir Philip Gibbs (1877-1962)

Philip Gibbs was born in London and he dedicated his life to writing. He worked for several newspapers during his career and he also wrote over 80 books: many were novels but others were the product of his researches, his reminiscences or his experiences as a War Correspondent mainly during WWI. In 1920, he was one of five War Correspondents knighted for their wartime services.

In 1908, he had the good fortune to meet Dr Frederick Cook who claimed to be the first man (other than the Eskimos) to have reached the North Pole. However, the evidence of his endeavour cited by Cook failed to check out and Gibbs was able to expose Cook as a fraud. A subsequent investigation ordered by the US Congress declared that Robert E. Peary was the first man to reach the North Pole in 1909.

In 1919, Gibbs had the distinction of becoming the first journalist to interview the Pope (Pope Benedict XV) as reported in The New York Times.

Over the course of his career, Gibbs met many other well known people including G K Chesterton; Edgar Wallace before he became famous; and Heinrich Himmler, the Head of the Nazi SS, before he became infamous.

He also met many others who are now less well known, including Filson Young (who edited the Transcript of Dr Crippen's Trial) and Ethel Le Neve for whom he ghosted a series of articles following her release. As described in our Feature Article, Le Neve had admitted to him that, after putting two and two together, she now had no doubt about Crippen's guilt. 'He was mad when he did it', she told Gibbs, 'and he was mad for me'.

His Obituary was published in The Times on 12 March 1962 and he has entries in Who's Who and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The Gestapo had also named him in their Informationsheft GB (Special Wanted List GB), prepared in anticipation of the planned German invasion in 1940.

Two of Gibbs' books are available on Project Gutenberg:

 

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