Jo Ward - page 11

“I don’t have any regrets, I either won or I learnt“

There can’t be many people in Gibraltar who don’t know Henry Sacramento, even if not personally then they will surely have heard of him.

Henry describes himself as ‘a cocktail of all kinds of blood’. “My father’s family has been in Gibraltar since 1840 when the first Sacramento came over from a little fishing village in Portugal called Tavira,” he explains, “and my son has recently given me a new grandson who is now the eleventh generation of our family born here.”  

It was while working as a plumber for the MOD that Henry’s father first met his mother. “She was born in Jerez del la Frontera in Spain and came to Gibraltar at the age of 27 to work as a nanny for Dr Henry Triay, the local paediatrician at that time, after whom I was named.” As the youngest of three brothers, Henry remembers his mother taking him along in the evenings when she cleaned offices for the Isola family. “Although I was well behaved, I was also very boisterous and she felt that she couldn’t leave me with my brothers, so I would empty the ashtrays and collect the wastepaper baskets for her.”

Always a hard worker, Henry would do odd jobs to earn money and at the age of 11 he had saved enough money to buy a second hand bicycle so that his parents didn’t have to find the money to pay for his bus fare to school. “When I was studying for my GCSEs I worked part-time at Napoleon’s Menswear in Main Street, leaving school at 4.15 pm and working from 4.30 – 7.30 pm Monday to Friday and a half day on Saturday.” 

At the age of 17 Henry decided he didn’t want to go on and do his ‘A’ levels and he applied to become a police cadet. “I started on the 3rd October 1977 and became a fully-fledged police officer when I became 18, on the 16th June 1978, which was the start of a long career with the Royal Gibraltar Police Force. 

“I did three years of shift work, but by the time I was 21 a vacancy came up for a community officer and I took on that role for the Glacis and Laguna Estates, and through that I became very involved with the schools, lecturing on road safety and first aid, and teaching cycling proficiency in St. Anne’s School.”  

Dance and drama has always been a passion, something that Henry was involved with during his school years having been a pioneer of the youth theatre. ”The first production I took part in as a policeman was in September 1981 when The Gibraltar Youth Theatre produced The Rite Of Spring directed by Mario Arroyo which was the largest cast of male dancers that Gibraltar had ever seen,” he states, continuing to say that as he was on night shift duty he was given permission to perform but that after showering he had to put on his uniform and walk the beat until 7 am!  

In 1982 Henry was asked to go to the International Festival of Music and Performing Arts in Aberdeen by the late Lionel Perez, founder of the Alpha Dance Group. “Most of the other community officers were involved with youth football teams, but my way of getting in touch with the young people was through dance and drama, and it gave them a chance to be able to see a policeman as a person and not just a uniform” he says. “I asked permission from Commissioner Williams at the time and he agreed that I should go.” 

Notwithstanding his incredible work as a Police Officer for over 37 years, Henry is renowned for his charity work and it was his involvement in a fundraising project for St. Martin’s School that led him to his first meeting with the Head Teacher, Priscilla, who would later go on to become his wife.

In the two years that Henry was the community police officer in Glacis and Laguna, he made such an impact that when the Commissioner wanted to move him elsewhere the community protested and demonstrated to have him kept on. “I had no idea how much of a difference I was going to make and because I had achieved so much in so little time, when the Commissioner decided to take me away the community wouldn’t have it.” Ultimately, Henry was made community officer for Upper Town. “I went on to police there for the next 15 years which is possibly the longest period of time that a community officer has ever served in one place,” he states. That was where Henry found his vocation for helping Moroccan families. “I have always been a lover of Morocco, so for me it was a way of helping in any way that I could, and I would visit the Plater Youth Club where they took in kids from the streets with nothing to do.”

In 1974 Henry first visited Morocco when he was an altar boy at St. Joseph’s School and he was asked to assist with a trip laid on by a club for underprivileged children. “I was only 14 but I loved it so much that I went back at every opportunity.” It was in Morocco ten years later that Henry learnt to belly dance, which added another aspect to his dance performances.

Later on, when Henry and Priscilla became a couple he realised she already had a passion for Morocco and its architecture, and five years ago when he retired from the Royal Gibraltar Police they bought a house in the Kasba in Tangier where they have become involved with an association called 100% Mamans which helps mothers who become pregnant out of wedlock and their children. “The charity has been running for over eighteen years and we were very impressed with how organised they were and how much good they were doing,” Henry explains. “For the past five years when we go over there our suitcases are full of baby clothes and things that they need, and I was able to get two knitting clubs in Gibraltar to make blankets for us to donate.” Henry says that they also take a cake every time they visit as that is the only occasion when the children have one. “We spend time with them and show them that there are people that care and that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that has become a very important part of what we do. It is not just about providing the physical needs but giving them psychological support in the best way that we can.”

When the Straits of Gibraltar Association was formed in Tangier they asked Henry and Priscilla to become Patrons. “We felt humbled and honoured to have been asked because it was like the crowning glory of all our work with Moroccan people,” Henry says. 

Both Henry and Priscilla have been bestowed with the Gibraltar Award, one year after each other, making them the first couple to receive it on their own merit and not as a couple. Asked if he has a motto or ethos by which he lives his life he says: “I give unconditionally never expecting anything in return, it is a win-win situation because the moment anyone gives me something back it is a bonus – the moment you expect something – when you don’t get it you are disappointed.”

Among Henry’s other charitable commitments is acting as a Trustee for the Happiness Foundation which was set up by Success & Happiness Psychologist Kath Temple. “As Chairman of the National Association of Police Welfare Advisors I had the responsibility of organising an annual conference and a bi-annual workshop and Kath was the person that gave the final workshop before I retired.”

One of the proudest of Henry’s achievements is sponsoring an orphan through the children’s charity AKIN. “We put Barnabas through university and he then went on to have a little girl whom he named Priscilla and then a little boy whom he named Henry in appreciation of everything that we did for them,” Henry states. Two years ago we accompanied the Director of AKIN Les Roberts to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and met Barnabas, Glory his wife, and our ‘grandchildren’, and we are now in touch with them every day.”

As if all that wasn’t enough, the Sacramentos were on the organising committee of the first Gibraltar Pride. Henry explains that they have always been defenders of all minorities and that creed, colour of skin and sexual orientation has got nothing to do with how people should be treated. Their latest project was to become the faces of the Gibraltar Movember movement against prostate cancer.

“Looking back,” Henry says, “I probably had the most colourful career any police officer could have had, and the biggest box that I could tick was to make a difference in people’s lives.”

‘Tis the season to be merry’! Let’s face it, Christmas may be a bit different this year to those of old, with smaller gatherings of close friends and family in the comfort of our homes and there is no better way to get into the Christmas spirit than with some traditional drinks to get you into the festive mood.

Wassail 

Wassail was a traditional Christmas and New Year toast, derived from the Anglo-Saxon words for “good health” – “waes hael”. The recipe of the same name is a hot, sweet spiced punch, made with apple cider with an added array of aromatic mulling spices. Another version is a frothy wassail, created by stirring beaten eggs into the warm, spiced mixture.  Wassailing is a Twelfth Night tradition that has its roots in a pagan custom of visiting orchards to sing to the trees and spirits in the hope of ensuring a good harvest the following season. During the visit a communal wassail bowl – filled with a warm spiced cider, perry or ale – would be shared amongst revellers. 

Mulled Wine (Glühwein)  

Tasting like Christmas in a glass, Mulled Wine contains traditional festive spices and is usually made with red wine. Different countries have different versions of the soothing, warming drink thought to have originated with the Greeks who added spices into wine left over after the harvest. From the Romans through to the Middle Ages and Victorian England, Mulled Wine recipes have evolved to modern-day versions which often contain orange, cinnamon, nutmeg, and dry red wine and a dash of port or brandy. 

Eggnog 

It is thought that eggnog originated from the early medieval Britain “posset,” a hot, milky, ale-like drink. By the 13th century, monks were known to drink a posset with eggs and figs. The basic recipe has not changed over the years (eggs are beaten with sugar, milk, cream, and some kind of distilled spirit), but it is not something for everybody’s palate and it is a love it or hate it type of drink. 

Christmas Punch 

This conjures up images of a large punch bowl with cups hanging from the side full to the brim with a mixture of alcohol and juices in which slices of fruit or berries float on top.  It is believed that the word punch was borrowed from the Hindi word for ‘five’, indicating the five central ingredients that a traditional punch consists of: spirit (rum), fruit juice, water, sweetener and spice. The drink was thought to have been introduced to England by employees of the English East India Company.  A big pan of warming punch is a great way to greet your guests at Christmas. 

Hot Toddy

If it’s chilly outside, there’s nothing better than warming your cockles with a hot toddy. This spiced whisky drink is usually made with whole spices, fresh herbs, and fruit. This recipe includes some honey which is the perfect addition to help combat a cold, cough or sore throat.

Take 50ml whisky, 3 tsp honey, 1 cinnamon stick, snapped in half, 1 lemon, (half juiced and half sliced) and 2 cloves. Whisk the whisky and honey together and split between 2 heatproof glasses. Add half the cinnamon stick to each, then top up with 200ml boiling water. Add a splash of lemon juice to each, then taste and add more to your preference. Finish each with a slice of lemon, studded with a clove, and serve immediately.

Champagne Punch

Perfect to serve at a Christmas Eve dinner or on New Year’s Day, Champagne Punch is a bubbly treat to add to your drinks repertoire. Think Great Gatsby and the roaring 1920s, where towers of champagne flutes would be filled with the punch that would cascade down like a waterfall to the delight of the spectators! Mix up 1 litre of apple juice (or apple cider), 1 bottle sparkling wine or champagne, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cardamom pods (broken), 6 whole cloves and some ice with apple slices for garnish and serve in sugar coated glasses. 

Hot Chocolate with Rum

At the end of the day there is nothing more comforting than an indulgent cup of hot chocolate. Bring 400ml of milk to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder with a whisk, until it has dissolved. Add 1 tablespoon sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and stir well. Let it cool down a little bit and then stir in 20 ml of rum. Top with whipped cream, dust with cocoa powder and for a real treat add some mini marshmallows.

All these festive drinks can be made as kid-friendly non-alcoholic versions – just leave out the alcohol. Remember to drink in moderation and to pace yourself, because although the festive season is a great time to eat, drink and be merry, we have to remind you to drink responsibly because as we all know, drinking too much can have repercussions.

When do you start your Christmas shopping? Do you leave it to the last minute or are you an early bird shopper and how much do you spend?

The holiday season is undoubtedly the biggest shopping spending period in many countries around the world with the busiest shopping day of the year no longer being Black Friday but the Saturday before Christmas, and it’s not just for gifts, think about the decorations, cards and food.

Statistics from the World Economic Forum show that shoppers in the USA spent over $1 trillion and in the UK people spent over £2 billion last year, whilst in some countries one-fifth of people go into debt to pay for Christmas gifts and festivities.

Gender

Shopping habits seem to be equal across gender as well as many of the age ranges, but something that many of us wouldn’t think true is that men tend to spend more than women! Apparently UK males spend over £410 on presents, whilst women only fork out £373. When it comes to generations, Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980)spend the most, with Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964), spending the least.  

Recipients

Who do we buy gifts for? Most of us will buy presents for our family members and some special friends, but do you also buy for your colleagues and co-workers? It makes sense that shoppers spend seven times more on family than on colleagues, but what about your pets? Do they make your Christmas shopping list? Nearly a third of dog owners have said they are likely to spend more on their pooch than their partner at Christmas, with men more likely to do so than women. 

Do you treat yourself at Christmas?  Seemingly many of us do with the average shopper spending over £100 on presents such as perfume or clothing for themselves whilst out and about doing their Christmas shopping.

What do you buy?

There is so much to choose from in the shops in the run up to Christmas, with everything from toys and clothes to perfumes and electrical goods on offer, but even with the vast range of options available, most gift purchases fall into one of these categories:

• 61% of adults will purchase clothing and accessories
• 30% of consumers will spend money on electronics
• 20% of buyers will simply give cash as a gift
• 56% of people will purchase gift cards
• 44% will buy media items such as games, videos, books, or music
• 42% of shoppers buy toys 

Are you one of those people who leave your Christmas shopping until the last minute? 12% of UK shoppers panic-buy, with chocolate being the number one gift for adults and books or money for teenagers.

Spending

Most of us overextend our finances at Christmas, either borrowing money or running up huge credit card bills. The pressure to spend more than we reasonably should is all around us but there are also those people who will spend with abandon,regardless of the consequences, despite the fact that we are experiencing hard economic times. 

Romania, along with the UK, are the places where one-fifth of people go into the red due to their Christmas spending. Luxembourg is the country where people are least likely to go into debt. 

In order of the percentage of monthly income spent at Christmas, the top six countries are: Romania 32%, Czechia 25%, United Kingdom 15%, United States 15%, Italy 12% and Spain12%.

Environmental Impact

More and more of us are thinking about the impact on the environment when buying gifts, with some people choosing to make their own. Regardless of this, and despite our best efforts, the environmental footprint is potentially significant.

So, should we buy real or artificial Christmas trees? There are some groups that say using an artificial tree reduces its environmental impact because we bring it out year after year and that if you buy a real Christmas tree that is not locally sourced, then the process of transporting it can ramp up a hefty carbon footprint. However, the Carbon Trust says that a real Christmas tree has a “significantly lower” carbon footprint than an artificial tree, particularly if it is disposed of in a sensible manner.

One way to have a lower impact Christmas is to buy local. Supporting local shops and buying locally-made gifts not only boosts the local economy but it will have a lower environmental impact. With less festive parties to attend and fewer people able to get together for Christmas lunch, it is a good opportunity to kick-start habits that you can carry over to ensure that you have a waste-free new year. 

Giving Back 

In the season of giving, this Christmas will be one that will see more people involved with the community and helping out through charitable actions, and whether that is through donating time or money why not think about how you can help someone whose spirits might need a little extra lift this holiday season.

Christmas 2020

Christmas is inextricably linked to the act of giving and receiving presents and although 2020 may mean that we will not be able to physically be with all of our loved ones on Christmas Day, and coronavirus restrictions may mean that we have to make changes to the way in which we do our Christmas shopping, we can still get into the holiday spirit and spread good cheer amongst others with thoughtful and unusual gifts.

More than Just a Gaelic Football Club

Will Peters, Chairperson of the Gibraltar Gaels, came to Gibraltar four years ago and like many others hadn’t heard much about Gaelic football. “I didn’t know any of the rules,” he says “but I was encouraged to join the Gaels by a group of friends and I really enjoyed the team spirit and eventually I became hooked.”

Heralded as Ireland’s most popular sport, Gaelic football is one of the sports that is included in the “Gaelic games” (along with hurling, Gaelic handball, and rounders), which is controlled by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), however, you don’t have to be Irish to join the Gibraltar Gaels. “We have got approximately sixty members over both the men and women’s teams with a massive mix of nationalities including Irish, Danish, Spanish, Gibraltarian, English, Welsh, Scottish, Portuguese and Slovakian,” Will states.  There are also plans in the pipeline to set up a kid’s team and potentially a mini league in Gibraltar in a few years’ time.  

The club was formed in 2011 by a group of Irish ex-pats, Séamus Hayes, Ollie Gotmann and Peter Goulding, and has grown massively since its inception with the addition of the women’s team a couple of years ago. Next year will be its tenth anniversary and Will hopes that they will be able to celebrate, if restrictions allow, with a big event to include an open day. 

One question often asked is how is Gaelic football different to football. “The rules are completely different and it is like a mix between basketball, rugby and football all in one,” Will explains. “In Ireland it is a 15v15 format played on a pitch that is 40% longer than a football pitch, but over here we play 11v11 because of the small pitch sizes.” 

The aim of the game is to put the ball in your opponents’ net (worth three points) or between the posts and above the crossbar (for one point). Will explains that you can move the ball along the pitch by either kicking it out of your hands, along the ground or passing it to a team-mate by hitting it with your fist. With the ball, you can only run a maximum of four steps after which the ball must be either bounced or “solo-ed”, an action of dropping the ball onto the foot and kicking it back into the hand. You may not bounce the ball twice in a row. To score, you put the ball over the crossbar by foot, hand or fist for one point, or under the crossbar and into the net by foot, hand or fist in certain circumstances for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points. “It’s like a football and rugby goal all in one,” he says. 

The ramifications of COVID-19 have had an impact on many sporting clubs and the Gibraltar Gaels are no exception. “We play in the Andalucía Gaelic Football League and we weren’t able to finish last year or to start training again for this season,” Will says. The other two teams are Eire Og Seville and the Costa Gaels and because the season finished early it was agreed that whoever was at the top of the league would be dubbed the winners, and that was the team from Seville.

“In 2019 we won the league and went on to represent Andalucía and Gibraltar in the Iberia Cup which was held in Barcelona, so we went to play against teams from Galicia, Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid along with others, and we got to the semi-finals,” Will says proudly. “The winner goes on to play in Ireland, so it was a massive achievement for us to get to the Iberian finals and we did really well.”

One of the reasons that people like to join the Gibraltar Gaels is for the social aspect, with several events taking place during the year. Will talks enthusiastically about a fund raising fancy dress Bingo night held last year at O’Reilly’s that raised over a couple of thousand pounds. “We have a wide range of memberships including for non-playing members or for those who just want to come to training to keep fit,” Will explains.   

Gaelic football is full contact, fun, fast and will improve your fitness. The Gibraltar Gaels play their games at Europa Point and currently train at the DTC on Wednesday evenings. If you are inspired to play the sport and want to meet new people, make friends and get active, you can get in touch with them via social media: Twitter – @GibGaels or Facebook- Gibraltar Gaels

Christmas wasn’t always celebrated on the 25th December and in fact it may have little to do with the actual date of the birth of Jesus which is not known. Archaeologists have traced the origins of the first Christmas to be celebrated on the 25th December, 300 years before the birth of Christ. The original event marked the consecration of the ancient world’s largest sun god statue, the 34m tall, 200 ton Colossus of Rhodes.

Italy:

In Italy many children get two sets of gifts – one on the 24th of December and a larger gift on the 6th of January. On this day, Italians celebrate Epiphany Day and according to popular belief a witch called La Befana arrives in the night to fill good children’s stockings with sweets, while naughty ones get chunks of black coal. 

China:

Only 1% of the population in China celebrates Christmas where it is treated more like Saint Patrick’s Day or Valentine’s Day and people like to go out to the cinema, to a karaoke bar or to the shopping malls. Apples wrapped in cellophane printed with messages are traditionally given because the word ‘apple’ sounds like ‘Christmas Eve’ in Mandarin.  Most of the Christmas decorations that we buy are made in China. 

UK: 

Nowadays, the Christmas feast still means roast turkey and all the trimmings for most British households, but many years ago a traditional Christmas dinner included a pig’s head served with mustard sauce. Crackers are traditionally pulled as part of Christmas celebrations in the UK, usually when sitting down to lunch. Looking like giant sweets, baker Tom Smith of London is credited with inventing crackers in 1847 when he got the idea after encasing his bon-bon sweets in a twist of paper, which is also where we get the traditional sweet wrapper from.

Germany:

The tradition of Christmas trees goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians and Romans, who marked the winter solstice with evergreen trees such as pines or firs as a reminder that spring would return. In the 16th century in Germany they decorated their trees with fruits and nuts. Tinsel originated in Nuremberg, Germany in 1610 when thin strands of real silver were put into trees to reflect candlelight, but only the wealthy could afford to decorate their trees like that because silver was very expensive.  Today, tinsel is made from PVC 

USA:

Did you know that there are 3 towns in the USA that are named Santa Claus; in Georgia, Arizona and in Indiana? Decorating trees with electric lights did not become popular in the United States until after World War II, but nowadays roughly 150 million sets of light are sold each year. The world’s largest Christmas present was the Statue of Liberty. The French gave it to the US in 1886. It is 46.5 meters high and weighs 225 tons!

Sweden:

Every year, the people of Gävle, Sweden build the world’s largest Christmas goat from straw in their main square where it stands from the first Sunday of Advent until after New Year or until the day that somebody attempts to burn the 13-metre goat down, which happens on a regular basis. The Gävle goat has been burned down 29 times since it first appeared in 1966, and damaged in other ways a further eight times. 

40% of Swedish families gather around their televisions to watch Donald Duck! Every year since 1959, at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the 1958 special KalleAnkaochhansvännerönskar God Jul (Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas) hosted by Jiminy Cricket, is shown on Sweden’s main public television channel, TV1.

Iceland:

In Iceland, Christmas celebrations start on Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, when families get together to enjoy a meal, traditionally roast lamb. Children place a shoe in their bedroom window each evening in the 13 days before Christmas and every night one of the ‘Yuletide lads’ visits, leaving sweets and small gifts or rotting potatoes, depending on how well the child has behaved the day before.  

Brazil: 

Rio de Janeiro is home to the world’s largest floating Christmas tree. The tree, first erected in 1996, is constructed on a metal frame 70 metres high and has 900,000 LED lightbulbs. Papai Noel, Father Christmas, travels from Greenland to Brazil to give presents to the Brazilian children.  Brazil celebrates Christmas in the middle of summer so the days are hot and sunny, and some people think that Papai Noel wears a red silk suit to keep him cool instead of his cosy red and white fur trimmed robes.

Russia:

Russians celebrate Christmas on the 7th January and for most of them the main winter holiday is the New Year. Following the revolution in 1917, Christmas was banned as a religious holiday in 1929 and Christmas Trees were banned until 1935 when they turned into ‘New Year’ Trees. If people did want to celebrate Christmas, they had to do it in secret in their families. Some Russians follow a strict Nativity Fast for forty days leading up to Christmas Eve which is broken at the appearance of the first star in the sky that night. Fortune telling is an old tradition that is still practiced today for fun with rituals involving the whole family including Tarot reading and tea leaf reading.

I don’t think there is any British Governor around the world that could feel as at home as I do in Gibraltar.

Vice Admiral Sir David George Steel, KBE, DL was appointed Governor of Gibraltar, the Queen’s representative on the Rock, by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in June this year. Jo Ward talks to him about his life, career and his hopes for Gibraltar. 

As a young boy David Steel was taken by his parents on holiday to France. “We went on a Townsend Thoresen ferry from Dover to Calais and I can remember walking up and down the passageways – I could only have been about six – feeling that I was the Captain, and from then on I always wanted to join the Navy,” he says. 

Born in Walthamstow, Sir David jokes that he is ‘an Essex boy’. “My mother was a Cockney and my father a Geordie, so I am a mixed-up kid,” he remarks. “My father was an architect and when I was about two years old we moved to Cheshire when he got a job running a partnership in Manchester.”

Educated at independent Rossall School in Lancashire, on the Fylde coast just north of Blackpool, Sir David got a scholarship from the Navy at sixteen and then applied to join Dartmouth and Durham University at the same time. “Durham agreed to postpone my entry for a year so I went to Dartmouth, did my initial Naval Officer Training and then went on to read Law at Durham,” he tells me. 

Sir David says that when her two sons were headed for university, he can remember his mother saying that she couldn’t bear the thought of them having a degree without having one herself, so she did an Open University degree in Humanities and Social Sciences. “I can’t remember whether she got her BA before I got mine, but I think we were pretty much on a par,” he states. 

Asked why he chose law to study, Sir David says that he was firstly interested in it and that secondly he thought it was a very useful broad vocational degree. “In the Navy they take two officers a year to become Barristers and even at that very early formative stage I had decided that I wanted to be in the Navy branch because I enjoyed that part of the Navy and I recognised it was the branch from which they chose Barristers, so I was very fortunate and I gained my degree.” Four years later the Navy sent Sir David to the Inns of Court to become a Barrister, from where he qualified and was then called to the bar in 1988. “Throughout my naval career I was either a legal advisor to one admiral or another and then I was a Defence or Prosecution Counsel in Courts Martial, going on to became a Judge in Courts Martial towards the end of my career.”

Agreeing that he was lucky to be able to fulfil both his ambitions, Sir David comments that he has been blessed with his career. “The Navy was first and foremost always going to be my career and to be able to have the legal professional side as well was terrific,” he explains. “I continued that all the way up to when I was a four ring Captain and then I had to make a decision, do I continue down the legal route or throw my energy into the Navy and I decided to go down that route, which allowed me to go higher but it did mean that I slightly left the law behind.” Sir David goes on to mention that having a legal background has helped not just in that job, but in his job before he came to Gibraltar and will also be an asset whilst he is here.  

Although he served in the Falklands War and in Kosovo, Sir David wishes that he had travelled rather more than did. “Because my branch and the legal professional I didn’t go to sea nearly as much as my warfare counterparts, whom I was advising back in the UK, out of my thirty-six years in the Navy I was attached to a ship for just shy of fifteen years, but I would have been much more at sea had I not read the law.”

Greatest Achievement

Among his most notable achievements are being awarded a Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in support of operations in Kosovo and Macedonia while serving in the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible in 1999. Sir David was also honoured for his “inspirational leadership” during the Government’s savings review of Naval Bases in 2007 and in response to the question about what he considers to be his greatest achievement, Sir David highlights his part in keeping Portsmouth open as an operational naval base. 

“In 2005 I was appointed to be the Naval Base Commander Portsmouth in charge of seventeen thousand people, of which a good twelve thousand of those are civilians who work on the ships, the engineering, and in the infrastructure facilities,” he explains. “In 2007 the then government announced that the country could no longer afford three naval bases, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Faslane in Scotland, and that one was to close.” Sir David says that there was to be a review of those three naval bases but that the dice was already against Portsmouth because it didn’t cater for nuclear powered vessels and was much older than the other two bases. “With the amazing help of the Trade Unions and all the civilian population we mounted the case, not in a sort of rebellious way but we put the case for Portsmouth and for over two years we continued to put forward that case – looking at how we could bring the costs down and how we could promote what the naval base did.” Ultimately, the government agreed that Portsmouth couldn’t possibly be closed.  “I had a very small part in keeping the Navy’s oldest naval base open but more particular to me was making sure that seventeen thousand people kept their jobs and so if I had one glimmer of success in my naval career – I think that was probably it,” he says modestly. 

Interestingly, Sir David oversaw the first change in the Royal Naval uniform since 1890. “Now we are at the other end of the scale,” he laughs as he says this. “Uniform is as controversial as anything could possibly be in the Navy and over many years there have been different designs for the uniforms.” As Second Sea Lord, Sir David commissioned a study and brought in a new, more up-to-date uniform which was universally accepted. “If you watched ‘In Which we Serve’ the film set in WWII – the old uniform was the same uniform as then and every other navy in the world had moved on, so we introduced something that was comfortable to wear both in the Arctic and in the Middle East.”

Leeds Castle

Prior to his coming to Gibraltar, Sir David was Chief Executive of the Leeds Castle Foundation. “That was a fantastic job where I was in sole charge of a business with a £20 million turnover year and responsible for three hundred and fifty people,” he declares.  “I found that absolutely fascinating – to come from the Navy where I was responsible for billions of pounds and forty thousand people, but if you overspent or under-spent it was neither here nor there, whereas at Leeds Castle every pound counted and I did feel that if I didn’t get the job right then one of those three hundred and fifty people would lose their job, so there was that huge responsibility of running a business where absolutely every day the money counted.”

His Excellency

Having already served Her Majesty the Queen as her Naval Aide-de-Camp, which entailed meeting and greeting the Monarch and acting as her right hand person when she used to visit the Navy, Sir David is once again serving Her Majesty in his role as Governor.  Under the 2006 Constitution His Excellency, to give him his official title, has responsibility for defence, internal security and foreign affairs. From his point of view and in the short time that he has been here is the role of Governor of Gibraltar what he expected it to be, or is it too ceremonial with not enough decision making? “The job is much more complex than it looks,” he responds. “When I was asked to come to Gibraltar I was asked to be a modern Governor – and I really didn’t know what that meant, but in essence it means being both the Queen’s representative, and I think that is where my priorities lie – but the close ties between the Crown and Gibraltar fall upon the shoulders of the Governor to execute.”

Does this mean he will be involved in making decisions about things like the Spanish aggression over the territorial waters? “The incursions are a hugely sensitive matter and I recently expressed my frustration and my anger at this continued transgression of Spanish forces into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters,” he replies. “We need to find a way of solving that, but it is not going to be solved by gun boat diplomacy – it will be solved by diplomatic and political means and part of the discussions going on at the moment, all to do with the withdrawal from the European Union, are hopefully going to either clear that up totally or if we fail we have got to start all over again and try and resolve this.” Sir David remarks that incursions have been going on for three hundred years but that it is not the British way to send in the tanks. 

“Every time they do something like this the Royal Navy is on the water making a silent protest, and in some cases not a silent protest, and if they fly the Spanish flag in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters, we will fly a bigger Union flag in the Territorial Waters – it is as simple as that.”

In these unprecedented times, with the withdrawal from the European Union and the Covid-19 issues, Sir David says that he has found himself very much more involved in helping the British and Gibraltarian Governments devise the plans and solutions to what could be an incredibly difficult problem.  “Because I have not been able to go out and about as much as I would have liked, every day of the week has been taken up with helping the negotiations to deliver a result for Gibraltar – so I do feel I am involved in the decision making.”

Brexit

Regarding the issue of Brexit, Sir David tells me that he could never have anticipated before he came here just how much effort the British Government is putting in to ensuring a good outcome for Gibraltar. “Whether one is for or against leaving the European Union, and I make no bones about it – I’m a European through and through but that doesn’t mean that I voted to stay or leave – but I do believe in the European family of nations,” he states. “I believe that Britain coming out of the European Union will flourish and on the back of that I think we will go through some difficult patches but Britain is the second largest trading nation in Europe, it is the sixth or seventh largest trading nation in the world and it is not going to stop on the 1st January 2021.”

“Trade is going to continue with Europe and the rest of the World and I believe that we will have some difficulty but that Britain will regain its strength by tying up with the rest of the World and included in that is Gibraltar,” he says. “Gibraltar is slightly different, in that it is landlocked with the European Union, so I honestly believe that any deal we do may have to have a unique part for Gibraltar, and I think there is a common realisation within Brussels and London that there might have to be a unique facility to make Gibraltar thrive, and I think that is where the work is ongoing.”

Patronage of Charities

One of the saddest things about taking on the role of Governor at this particular time is that Sir David has not been able to get out to the twenty or so charities of which he has already become Patron. “I was looking forward to bouncing into Gibraltar, Tigger-like, getting involved in everything going on and I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated I have been that I haven’t been able to go to the schools, to the charities, to participate in events, go to the theatre and to all the things that happen here, but once it gets back to normal then I will be very busy and I am looking forward to it.”

Impressions of Gibraltar

Apart from two quick visits to deliver a speech here, the last time Sir David came to Gibraltar was on a three day stop in 1983 in the frigate HMS Broadsword on his way to the Gulf on the Beira Patrol. “My recollection is walking around and thinking that it was a rather down-at-heel military town, and coming back now I am agog at how Gibraltar has transformed itself and there has been a massive change, but what astonished me most is how ambitious Gibraltar has become, how cosmopolitan, and with the development of the green sites everywhere it is cleaner, smarter, vibrant, ambitious, dynamic – it is all focused on the future, whereas in 1983 I think it was focused on the past.” 

Home in the UK is a village outside Winchester, and coming to Gibraltar has meant that Sir David will be able to see more of his brother who lives along the coast in Fuengirola, but with such a busy life, does he have time to indulge in any hobbies or sporting activities? “What I have taken to in a big way is walking, I absolutely love it, and if I have the time in the evenings I will go and walk up the Med Steps and I am also now back to running, so I run up and down to Europa Point,” Sir David says. “I want to join a squash club and I would like, if I have the time, to join a Kayak Club and go kayaking around Gibraltar.”

“In the three months that I have been here the one thing I have learnt more than anything is that Gibraltar people have huge hearts and big smiles and I have been overwhelmed by the welcome that has been extended to me. I wrote in a report to London recently that I don’t think there is any British Governor around the world that could feel as at home as I do in Gibraltar.”

The last time Anthony Horowitz OBE came to Gibraltar was in 2018 when he was researching locations for the next book in his Alex Rider teenage spy series. That novel, Nightshade, was published earlier this year. Jo Ward talks to the author at his home in London…
virtually, of course.

Since Stormbreaker, the first Alex Rider novel to hit the shelves back in 2000, there have been twelve more books in the series, of which Nightshade was the thirteenth. Enjoyed by a generation of young people, some who are now not so young, as well as those who love the spy thriller genre, Alex Rider embodies everything that an adolescent James Bond would have been. 

Anthony explains that Gibraltar had already featured in the ninth book Scorpia Rising and in the new book, featuring a terrorist attack on London, Alex sets off to the Rock to a maximum security prison and enters into a battle against a new criminal organization: Nightshade. 

“I had an idea for an action scene where Alex could hide from the authorities and then escape to Tangier across the Strait,” he explains. “I was looking for a way for Alex to pick up a boat and I found it right next door to the Naval Police Station and I managed to plot out that storyline just by walking around Gibraltar.”

In June this year an eight part series entitled Alex Rider was released on Amazon Prime starring Otto Farrant as Alex, whom Anthony thinks will go on to be massively successful in his acting career.  The TV show fuses together stories from the first two books and Anthony says that the response has been phenomenal. “Alex Rider fans are crazy for the series and my Twitter account has been absolutely brimming with enthusiasm for the last month, so I am very excited.”  The scripts were written by Guy Burt, who Anthony says took the best of the books and added a whole lot more. “I wasn’t able to write it because I was doing Nightshade but it was a good idea to get a fresh pair of eyes on it, and one thing Guy has is that he has teenage sons so he is very connected to that young world.” Could we see Gibraltar appearing as part of the TV series? “The producers of the Alex Rider show read Nightshade and the first thing they said was that this would make the most fantastic film,” Anthony states. So watch this space, Gibraltar may not appear on the small screen but it could be the big screen!

Known as one of the most prolific and successful writers in the English language, as well as a screenwriter and children’s novelist, Anthony’s books include the James Bond and Sherlock Holmes novels commissioned by the Fleming and Conan-Doyle estates. “I am in discussion about a new James Bond book, I have an idea and I would like to do a third one but it is not yet confirmed,” he tells me.

He’s also the creator of Midsomer Murders and the Bafta-winning Foyle’s War, so it is no surprise that he has been extremely busy during lockdown.  “At the moment I am writing an adaptation of my novel Magpie Murders which is hopefully going to be filmed next year for television as a six part series, and I have also been writing the sequel to that, Moonflower Murders, due for release at the end of August. It is a murder mystery but a very complex one – it is a modern novel in which the main character is an editor who finds the solution to a modern day murder in a 1950s golden aged detective story, so it is a book within a book,” he states. 

In 2018 Anthony launched the first book in his Hawthorne mystery series, The Word is Murder, in which a fictionalised-version of Anthony himself acts as sidekick and chronicler to ex-cop turned private investigator Daniel Hawthorne. The Sentence is Death followed on and now Anthony tells me that he has started a third Hawthorne novel. “I have also been writing something very interesting and complex, which is a murder mystery for an American company called Quibi that uses mobiles phones to broadcast short form drama in seven minute episodes.”

People think that writers have been locked down all their lives and Anthony says that there is some truth in that and admits that he has been in a sort of isolation for 35 years as a professional writer. “Nonetheless, I feed on life in the streets and visiting friends, in human contact and going to restaurants, theatres and cinemas – so it is very discombobulating being a writer right now and I really do feel cut off and it has been quite hard to find the focus,” he comments. “That said – I have done some of my best work!”

As someone who has always been a champion for children’s literature and is frequently asked to contribute to debates on children’s reading, Anthony says that it has never been more important than during the current lockdown restrictions. “I have spent the last twenty odd years talking about how vital reading is but it is only in the last ten weeks that I have realised how true that is – for young people who are missing school, their friends, social contact, travel – the need to escape has never been greater and of course the book is the great escape,” he comments. “I always say that a book is shaped like a door and opens like a door, and once you enter the world of the book you have no say in where it will take you.” 

www.anthonyhorowitz.com