Remembering The Master Historian Sir Martin Gilbert

A master documenter of events who would leave no stone unturned, he brought a sense of purpose and balance to everything he wrote.

I still have the e-mails he sent me in response to my question about finding child survivors of the Holocaust. He was quick to provide names and organizations. More recently, he was in town to do a book signing for Will of the People – Winston Churchill and Parliamentary Democracy, and asked how my novel was proceeding.

The third time I saw Gilbert was when I attended a lecture in which he talked about his childhood, and how he was evacuated to Canada during the war when he was 4 years old. I brought my wife and daughter along to that one. He said he always had a soft spot in his heart for Canada.

Sir Martin Gilbert mixed with opera stars like Placido Domingo, and he knew a number of world leaders, presidents, and prime ministers alike. Gordon Brown, when he was prime minister of Great Britain, had asked him to serve on a task force looking into the Iraq war. While comfortable in these circles, he was also a most generous man, and I had the pleasure of learning that first-hand.

He will be missed.