Royal Gibraltar Gun Salute
A Royal Gun Salute was fired by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment on February 6th to mark the Accession to the Throne of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
On this occasion, the Inspecting Officer was Major (Retd) Charles Armstrong ED JP, a former Battery Commander of Thomson’s Battery. Major Armstrong relinquished command of B Company in 1990 and retired from the Regiment in 1992. The Battery was commanded by Major Charles Bonfante of B Company, RG.
British Forces Gibraltar Bids Farewell To Its Rock
Farewells are often hard to do. In close-knit organisations, more so.
Marie Martinez was British Forces Gibraltar’s longest serving member of staff. She started at a turbulent time as the military operations on the Rock were being scaled-back in line with defence cuts and the emergence of a different kind of military threat. Her fuirst job was that of part-time clerical assistant in 1984, when she was told not to make herself “too comfortable”. Time has proven to be on her side!
She then moved on to work in the former Principal Supply and Transport Organisation (Naval) for four years, before moving into the budgeting world in early 1989. Promoted to EO in November 1991, Marie remained within the Budgets area until January 2004 when she transferred to the Library at HMS Rooke.
Here Marie became a qualified para-professional in the Library and Information field and spent many a happy day processing books, preparing competitions for our younger readers, preparing learning opportunities and ensuring the Joint Education Library and Information Centre (JELIC) was the best learning environment it could be. The Library sadly closed its doors in 2013, and Marie was instrumental in achieving the gifting of the contents (both books and shelving) to HMGoG for inclusion and use in the John Mackintosh Hall Library. The JELIC became the Joint Education Centre and moved to Devil’s Tower Camp in 2016, becoming the Joint Education and Training Services (JETS) in the wake of the Op Model re-organisation.
The Ops Model provided opportunities for the MOD workforce and in 2017 Marie was promoted to HEO, taking over the position of manager of the JETS. Marie held this post until her retirement in January 2020. She has relished these last three years, with the highlight of JETS achieving notable success in the field of Functional Skills for Command personnel.
Marie joins her husband Kevin, in retirement and they plan to travel as long as health and finances permit. Gibraltar salutes you, Marie!
Honors & Awards
Commodore Tim Henry, Commander British Forces Gibraltar, presented a number of awards at a ceremony in The Tower.
The latest ceremony saw four members of the British Forces Gibraltar community being awarded CBF Commendations in recognition of their outstanding contribution to Headquarters British Forces Gibraltar.
Daniel Ferro, Ms Liz Connor, Ms Lourdes Berllaque and Mrs Audrey Maclean were commended.
