Sir John Watson Gibson (9 August 1885 – 19 March 1947) was an English civil engineer. He designed dams in England and in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and port installations in England and Ireland. In the UK he is most notable for having designed a key part of the Mulberry harbours for the 1944 Normandy landings. Biography Early life and career Gibson was born in Middlesbrough in 1885 and educated at Middlesbrough School for Boys. He was apprenticed to S Pearson & Son, with whom he assisted in the building of new concrete jetties at the docks in Southampton, Fenit in Ireland for access to Tralee, and the new King George Dock in Kingston upon Hull. First World War Having what was designated an essential skill, Gibson was refused permission to serve in combat with the British Army. The Army lent him to the Ministry of Munitions, for whom in 1916 he went to the United States as Director General of shell and gun supply. He returned to the UK in 1917 and became controller of Aircraft Requirements and Review. For his services to his country Gibson was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 1918. 1918–1939 After the war Gibson specialised in reservoirs and water supply. In the 1920s he designed the Queen Mary Reservoir at Stanwell, Middlesex, which when completed in 1925 the largest water storage reservoir in the World. While working there he bought Stanwell Place, which came with of land, and the adjoining Stanhope and Hammonds farms, which between them totalled . Gibson's estate totalled when in 1936 the Metropolitan Water Board bought most of it to build the King George VI Reservoir. Gibson was Pearson's site agent for the Sennar Dam in Sudan. In 1933 he entered into partnership with Pauling & Co., forming Gibson and Pauling (Foreign) Ltd in 1933 to build the Jebel Aulia Dam on the White Nile, also in Sudan, which was the largest dam in the world at that time. After completing the Jebel Aulia Dam, Gibson became managing director of Pauling & Co, a position he held until his death in March 1947. Second World War At the outbreak of the Second World War, Gibson offered his services as an engineer to his country. For the duration of the war his family moved to a more rural location, and Gibson lent Stanwell Place to the United States Army High