British journalist and politician, born in London in 1841, and educated at King’s College, London. In 1860 he entered the Inland Revenue office, remaining there until 1868, and afterwards travelled extensively. He subsequently became connected, either as journalist or proprietor, with various newspapers, notably Vanity Fair, The Lady, and offshoots from the last-named periodical. From 1870 to 1871 he was correspondent for the Morning Post in Paris. He was elected as a Conservative for King’s Lynn in 1892, and held the seat till 1906, when he was defeated, largely owing to his advocacy of free trade. He was elected for the same seat as a Liberal in 1910, but was unsuccessful in the second general election of that year. He became well known as an expert in parliamentary procedure and a critic on public finance. In 1916 he was elected for the southern division of Leicester. Mr. Gibson Bowles was always prominent as an opponent of any diminution of British sea power, and he published Maritime Warfare (1878); Flotsam and Jetsam (1882); Log of the Nereid (1889); The Declaration of Paris of 1856 (1900) and Sea Law and Sea Power (1910).
