Thornely Carbutt Gibson

Thornely Gibson (Thornely Carbutt Gibson; 11 August 1883 – 17 March 1969) was a British bass-baritone singer, stockbroker and Irish Guards officer. After the First World War, he carried out reporting missions in Germany on behalf of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), using his singing career as cover. His 1919 memorandum Bolshevism in Germany, which warned that hunger under the Allied blockade was pushing Germany towards revolution, was circulated to the War Cabinet as paper G.T. 7092 by Winston Churchill as Secretary of State for War, and led to a meeting with the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.

Gibson later served on the Austrian Section of the Reparation Commission in Vienna before returning to the City of London as a stockbroker. He was the father of Patrick Gibson, Baron Gibson, chairman of Pearson plc and the Arts Council of Great Britain, and of the actress and Bletchley Park veteran Pamela Rose.

Early life and singing career Gibson was the son of Arthur B. Gibson, an architect of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was educated at Charterhouse School, where he was both a junior and senior scholar, and later became a scholar of New College, Oxford, taking a first class in Moderations. The Charterhouse Register lists his occupation as "Singer".

Gibson performed publicly from 1911. A review in the Oxford Magazine of the Eights Week concert praised his performance of Peter Cornelius's aria Die Vätergruft for baritone and unaccompanied chorus, noting his "fine voice and really artistic singing".

On 16 May 1913, he gave a recital at Bechstein Hall, now Wigmore Hall, with the pianist Edwin Fischer. The programme advertised him as a bass-baritone and included works by Bach, Dvořák and Beethoven.

Military service Gibson joined the 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers in 1902 and resigned his commission in 1905.

During the First World War, he served with the Irish Guards as a lieutenant and acting captain.

Intelligence reporting After the war, Gibson was based in Switzerland and provided SIS with reports obtained on concert tours inside Germany. Newspaper coverage described the wedding as a "suffragist form of marriage" because the bride was not asked to promise to "obey" her husband. Later syndicated reports said that the ceremony omitted the words "obey" and "serve" from the Anglican marriage service, and described Wetzlar as "the first bride, it is said, to make a practical protest" against "moral indignities to women" in the service.

They had two children: Patrick Gibson, Baron Gibson (1916–2004), financier and chairman of Pearson plc, the Arts Council of Great Britain and the National Trust.