Gilbert Oliver Jerrold was born in Paris in 1909, educated in England and France, and died in the USA in 1950.
In 1940 he married Deirdre Ita Brennan in Washington D.C. where he was working as an aeronautical engineer purchasing aeroplanes for the Free French. Gilbert and Deirdre had five children: Jan Jay, Noel, Yvonne, Alan, Suzanne.
In 1943 in Algiers, Gilbert founded the Ecole Nationale Professionelle de l'Air at Cap Matifou.
