Gerald Gabb was born in 1950 in the Uplands in Swansea and brought up near the village of Newton.
He attended primary schools in Newton and Mumbles, then Dynevor County Secondary in the town centre, where he received excellent history teaching for which he remains grateful.
He studied for a B.A. in history at Hull University and at what then was the University College of Swansea. A one year M.A. followed on “Lord Salisbury at the Constantinople Conference, 1876-77”, supervised by Dr. Muriel Chamberlain – an excellent experience. After that came a P.G.C.E. at the College, the department then run by Lionel Ward and Gareth Elwyn Jones.
He worked for ten years (1973-1983) as Head of the History Department at Llansamlet Junior Comprehensive. From 1983 to 2009 he was Education Officer with Swansea Museums Service, organising and teaching under the banner of 4Site Education, which included the two museums, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Plantasia. It was an exceptionally busy occupation, but he is lucky enough to be able to say that he thoroughly enjoyed his work.
Acquiring an interest in local history, since the 1970s he has written a number of articles for local journals, notably Gower, and more recently for Welsh periodicals – Llafur, Maritime Wales, the Cymmrodorion Transactions and the Welsh History Review.
He has published books on Mumbles (1986), the Mumbles Railway (1987), Swansea in the 1890s (1997 & 1999) and general accounts of “Swansea and its History” (2007, 2019).
He has been a Council member of the Royal Institution of South Wales since 1983 and is currently (2024) editor of its annual Swansea History Journal also known as Minerva. He is a keen proponent of properly thought-through referenced history which is also accessible to interested members of the public. This is reflected in the R.I.S.W.’s annual History Day and Local History Bookfair, and in the stall he has run at Swansea Market over the last four Christmases.