Harry Buckley from the Daily Telegraph, in 1935, observed that Gibraltar was a strange place and so English; Tea rooms everywhere; steak and kidney pudding; “there is nothing Spanish about Gibraltar” he commented; it is just a small transplanted bit of England combining the exotic with the familiar. Another English writer called Gibraltar’s main street, an antithesis of a Spanish town.

Halfway house

This “halfway house” as he put it, was a place where all creeds and nations met; everyman in his own costume and speaking his own language; the asylum of people of all nations. A place he noted as far more prosperous than the severely impoverished South of Spain. Jasdon R. Musteen, English historian who submitted a dissertation on the ascendancy of Gibraltar during 1793-1815, said he had never met a population more genuinely helpful; or one that desired more to see others succeed.

Gibraltarians have never shirked from confrontations, battles or wars, nor from assisting their British counterparts. The earliest historical evidence of local civilians enrolled to defend Gibraltar dates back to 24th June 1720; and by 1755, an armed organisation of local men known as the Genoese guard, came into being. During the great siege of Gibraltar local labourers were tasked with assisting the troops; and in the 19th century, 100 local men were employed as the King’s Cart Drivers.

They were involved in several battles during the Mahdist War and were awarded the Anglo- Egyptian war medal with a clasp, bearing the “Suakin 1885.” During World War 1, 400 Gibraltarians volunteered to take up arms and in World War 11, in 1939, the Gibraltar Defence Force was mobilised.

First shots

They fired their first shots on 7th July 1940; later ensuing in action against Vichy French and Italian planes and engaging German planes. Gibraltarians were allocated to the 4th and 27th Coast Batteries of the Royal Artillery, as well as the Royal Signals, Royal Army Service Corps and Medical Corps. They shot down their first enemy aircraft on the night of the 20th August 1940.

Ultimately World War 11 provided the rock of Gibraltar with its last act of military heroism when the port proved vital in the battle against the German u boats. In fact Malta at the time, a critical strategic island under heavy bombardment from the Axis powers, would have fallen had it not been for Gibraltar’s supply efforts. The Rock, as a Welsh friend just today said to me, is a place where I feel safe!

The only cloud that mars our horizon is and always has been, Spain. Spain’s loss of Gibraltar and other Spanish territories in the Mediterranean was resented by the Spanish public and monarchy alike. In 1730 a line of fortifications were mounted by Spain along the border, designed to help starve the colony into submission. In 1779 this strategy was more forcibly pursued when Gibraltar was besieged by a French/Spanish force for three years, but still, the fortress held out.

<b>Hostage to misfortune</b>

Gibraltarians have learnt to share an interlaced nature with Britain and Spain and how to interact with them. Yet it sometimes feels as if we are only tolerated according to the British media; “the people of the Rock must be told what’s good for them; and “Gibraltar like the Falklands cannot be preserved eternally into a cocoon of British guarantees; which makes a bad hostage to misfortune.”

The Spaniards have always underestimated the sacrifices that Gibraltar has been prepared to make to safe-guard their links with Britain; the “verdadero sentir,” as Sir Joshua once put it, “del pueblo de Gibraltar.” The place they saw as not self sufficient at one point and said it could never be so, now feeds a great many Spanish mouths. All we have ever received from them has been threats and warnings of things to come, just like now. Spain believed that with the closure of the frontier, they would ruin our existence and suffocate the economic life of the city.

Homeland

Gibraltar not only survived but prospered, because we are made of a different metal to them. We learnt to stand on our own two feet, and have become one of the richest homelands in Europe. “In a small room at the Santa Cruz Palace” wrote Joe Garcia in the 1980`s, “a senior Spanish diplomat in Madrid said, “we realise we’re not going to regain Gibraltar tomorrow, it is rather a case of a generation.” Now again in 2018, Madrid announces that taking back the Rock is a “fundamental objective” of theirs. Not helping their millions of unemployed; or eradicating corruption; or solving their financial crisis; No. Taking back the Rock is what is uppermost in their minds; sentiments of fanatics or the blind. It is said that Gibraltar’s fate may eventually be sealed by politicians and diplomats; but as far as the Gibraltarians are concerned, our home can belong to no one but ourselves; for our roots have grown too deep into the Rock.

14-05-18 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR