Gideon was born on 7 Aug 1916 to Joseph and Jeanne Barsky. Joseph was born in Odessa, Ukraine and moved to Israel. He was a graduate of the Architectural College in Odessa and of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Art. He moved to Israel in 1907 and lived and worked in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine where he became a well known architect. Details of Gideon’s younger life are unknown to date but by 1939 he had travelled to England and in the Register was listed as living in Hendon and working as a mechanical engineer.

Records show that he enlisted at Euston after August 1940. Gideon trained at Lulsgate Bottom on the Lorenz Beam landing system. He was amongst 12 RAF personnel on this course and was fondly remembered by another attendee Frederick Unwin. Frederick’s widow Jill has advised that her husband and Gideon (known as Gilbert) had a great friendship spending free time together and often playing table tennis at the YMCA in Bristol.

Gideon was the pilot of Oxford AB771 which crashed near to Weston-super-Mare killing him and fellow pilot Newton Hunter Middleton Williams, 1490507.