DR IAN McGIBBON, ONZM, was formerly General Editor (War History) at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, having begun his career as the Defence Historian at the Ministry of Defence. A widely acclaimed author, he has had a hand in over 15 books, including such major publications as The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History (ed., 2000), New Zealand and the Second World War: The People, The Battles and the Legacy (2004), New Zealand's Great War: New Zealand, the Allies and the First World War (2007), The Penguin Book of New Zealanders at War (co-ed., 2009), and New Zealand's Vietnam War (2010). For the last five years, McGibbon has been involved in the Joint Historical and Archaeological Survey of the Anzac Battlefield, a tri-nation project at Gallipoli.
He lives in Paraparaumu.