Richard Patrick Tallentyre Gibson, Baron Gibson (5 February 1916 â 20 April 2004) was a British publishing executive and arts administrator. He chaired the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1972 to 1977 and the National Trust from 1977 to 1986. In business he was group chairman of Pearson plc from 1978 to 1983 and chairman of Financial Times Ltd from 1975 to 1977.
Gibson was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. His parents were both accomplished singers, his father a former professional baritone and his mother a lieder recitalist, and he later said he would have liked to be an orchestral conductor.
He joined the Middlesex Yeomanry in 1939 and served in the North African campaign, being taken prisoner at Derna in Libya in April 1941. He was held for two years in prisoner-of-war camps in northern Italy, including at Fontanellato near Parma.Camp PG 49 at Fontanellato occupied a former orphanage and held about 500 Allied officers and 100 other ranks.
After the Italian Armistice in September 1943 the commandant of Camp PG 49, Colonel Eugenio Vicedomini, warned that German forces were approaching and told prisoners to leave; the inmates then dispersed into the countryside. Colonel Eugenio Vicedomini was sent to a German concentration camp for opening the gates of the camp.
The prisoners dispersed into the countryside ahead of approaching German forces, many heading either south towards Allied lines or north towards Switzerland; local civilians provided food, shelter and clothing. Gibson travelled south with Edward Tomkins and Hugh Cruddas. They were helped by local civilians with food and occasional clothing. In one village, a shopkeeper, on seeing a maternal inscription on GibsonâÂÂs watch, refused the watch as payment and supplied food for free. The men moved south from the Po river to Bari, crossing the Apennines and German lines and reaching Allied territory after 81 days. They reached Allied lines on the Sangro in the Abruzzi.
Back in Allied hands, he returned to Britain and was seconded to the Special Operations ExecutiveâÂÂs Italian section. In 1944 to 1945, he served in Italy supporting partisan operations, then in 1945 to 1946 worked in the Foreign OfficeâÂÂs Political Intelligence Department.
After the war, Gibson joined the Pearson familyâÂÂs Westminster Press group in 1947, toured its provincial papers and became a director in 1948; in time he joined the boards of the Financial Times, The Economist and Pearson plc. He chaired Pearson Longman from 1967 to 1979, chaired Financial Times Ltd from 1975 to 1977, and was group chairman of Pearson plc from 1978 to 1983.
As PearsonâÂÂs group chairman from 1978, he led the move for the FT to begin printing in Germany; the Frankfurt European edition started on 2 January 1979, the paperâÂÂs first overseas print site.
Within Pearson he backed diversification into visitor attractions. Just before becoming group chairman he pushed the takeover of Madame Tussauds and then gave its management responsibility for Chessington; in 1979 Pearson also took a stake in a US theme-park operator, groundwork that later helped the group buy and run Alton Towers.
During the industrial conflicts of the 1970s he opposed a journalistsâ closed shop, leading to a six-month strike at the Northern Echo.
The Telegraph later described his style as strategic and unobtrusive, noting that he ran Pearson âÂÂfrom an eyrie in the Millbank Towerâ and was sometimes dubbed âÂÂCowdrayâÂÂs ViceroyâÂÂ.
Gibson was appointed chair of the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1972, succeeding Arnold Goodman under the Conservative government of Edward Heath. Contemporary accounts link his selection to the arts brief held by Lord Eccles. His tenure coincided with high inflation, pay pressures and rising expectations for wider access to culture. A later assessment in the Financial Times characterised the structural tension of the period as âÂÂinsufficient funds to sustain the national âÂÂcentres of excellenceâ just as it came under pressure to increase funding for the regionsâÂÂ.
Working with Labour arts minister Hugh Jenkins from 1974 to 1976, the Council backed a stronger role for the Regional Arts Associations (RAAs). Jenkins told the Commons that the Arts Council would âÂÂcontinue to give a high priorityâ to supporting the associations. In a 1977 Lords debate Gibson reviewed the period, noting early progress on touring and regional funding, followed by constraint after the 1973âÂÂ74 economic crisis and high inflation.
The Council also considered proposals to rationalise major companies. Press coverage at the time recorded Treasury interest in merging the Royal Opera House and English National Opera; the Council did not proceed and maintained support for both.
In November 1973 the Council established a Community Arts Working Party, chaired by Professor Harold Baldry, to review support for participatory, locally based activity. Following its report, the Council created a Community Arts Committee in April 1975 âÂÂfor a two-year experimental periodâÂÂ, routing much support through the RAAs; the 1976âÂÂ77 report stated that community arts had âÂÂproved their worth and deserve continuing support at a higher level of subsidyâÂÂ.
Debate about elitism and access persisted. On 15 March 1974 Jenkins told the Commons he was working with trustees on ending museum admission charges, signalling the governmentâÂÂs priorities on access. Gibson defended continued government funding of established institutions and supported spreading access to all for free, particularly those living in regions outside of London.
GibsonâÂÂs chairmanship ended in 1977. By then the regional framework had been strengthened, a community-arts committee was in place, and the Council was restating accountability at armâÂÂs length: âÂÂThe Arts Council is the major source of arts patronage in Great Britain. It spends taxpayersâ money, and this lays on it a duty to exercise its patronage with responsibilityâ¦âÂÂ.
Gibson chaired the National Trust from 1977 to 1986. Membership passed the one million mark in 1980 and continued to rise through the decade. Before becoming chair he had served on the TrustâÂÂs executive committee from 1963 and sat on Sir Henry BensonâÂÂs 1968 review of the TrustâÂÂs management and responsibilities. Major properties coming to the Trust during his chairmanship included Studley Royal Park, Belton House, Calke Abbey and parts of The Argory estate, and contemporary accounts also credit him with helping to secure places such as Ightham Mote, Kinder Scout and Wenlock Edge.
In 1983 he chaired an extraordinary general meeting at Wembley requisitioned by members who opposed granting a lease of underground rights beneath the TrustâÂÂs Bradenham estate in the Chilterns for an extension to the Ministry of DefenceâÂÂs Cold War communications and operations facility associated with RAF High Wycombe. After debate a large majority endorsed the CouncilâÂÂs policy; press accounts recorded an attendance of about 8,000. In the House of Lords he explained why the TrustâÂÂs statutory power of inalienability is central to such decisions: land declared inalienable cannot be sold and is protected from compulsory purchase except by special parliamentary process. He called that protection âÂÂan asset uniquely conferred on the trust by Parliament, and ⦠the basis of the trustâÂÂs whole existenceâÂÂ, and argued that a tightly conditioned lease of subsurface rights, with minimal surface works and full restoration, preserved the TrustâÂÂs inalienable ownership and amenity better than reliance on compulsory powers.
He served as chairman of the advisory council of the Victoria and Albert Museum, as a director of the Royal Opera House, as a trustee of Glyndebourne, as a member of the executive committee of the National Art Collections Fund, and as an adviser to the Gulbenkian Foundation.
In 1945 Gibson married Dione Pearson, granddaughter of Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray. They had four sons. He took his title from his home Penn's Rocks in East Sussex, where he died on 20 April 2004. A Daily Telegraph obituary noted a second home, an 18th century villa at Asolo near Venice. A lifelong concert-goer, âÂÂhis great love was for musicâÂÂ, and he attended Der Rosenkavalier with his family in the week before he died; he was still skiing in his eighties.