LONDON (AP) – Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill’s official biographer and a leading historian of the Holocaust, has died following a lengthy illness. He was 78.
John Chilcot, a senior civil servant, told a British parliamentary committee on Wednesday that Gilbert died the previous night. Gilbert was a member of Chilcot’s panel conducting an official investigation into Britain’s role in the Iraq war.
Gilbert wrote more than 80 books, including many with themes related to World War II. He is best known for his works on Churchill, which began when he worked with the prime minister’s son, Randolph Churchill, on an official biography.
He continued for 20 years after Randolph Churchill died in 1968, completing an eight-volume biography and writing several other books about the statesman, including “Churchill: A Life; “Churchill: The Power of Words,” and “Continue to Pester, Nag, and Bite: Churchill’s War Leadership.”
He published more than 80 books in all, including “The Holocaust,” ”Israel: A History,” and the three-volume “History of the 20th Century.”
Gilbert was knighted in 1995 for services to British history and international relations.