Chapter 25 (Part 1)

The Queen’s Visit 1954

1953 ... Quite an eventful year for the Commonwealth. The young Princess Elizabeth was crowned Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth. This was 8 years after the end of World War II. Britain together with the Allies had won the war against Nazi German, but the financial cost to the country was devastating. So, a bit of pomp and ceremony was sorely needed .... and Britain came through in magnificent form.

No sooner were the plans for the honeymoon announced ....  when the then wet blanket (now gratefully buried) Franco clamped down mercilessly on the Frontier. No more passes were to be issued to any new workers coming into Gib from Spain as from the date when the Queen dared to step on the “Spanish soil” of Gibraltar! This actually was a punitive measure which hurt the Campo are far more that it hurt Gib. It was the prequel of the withdrawing of such passes to women workers …and ultimately to the 1969 Frontier Closure.

Spain, still uneasy after a most cruel Civil War, needed a new rallying cry and it's dictator, Francisco Franco Bahamondes, injected his political slogan "GIBRALTAR ESPAÑOL!" not just to his political rantings but also to the educational system of the country. This was so effective that today, even two generations later, Spanish politicians of the present day are indelibly poisoned beyond any democratic logic, into trying to retrieve the Rock back into the "patria". For those who were not born during this era, just flick through the news of nowadays regarding Spanish governmental reaction on the cry for a democratic referendum in Catalunya. The violent anti-democratic reaction of a pseudo democratic Spain will shock you!
Or perhaps not….

So, imagine in 1953, with Spain in the iron grip of a dictator, with no concept of any democratic ideas, and you will understand how these frustrated measures against the Rock ended up with the 6th Spanish Siege of 1969 and the closed Frontier.

This is all by way of background because in 1954 Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, visited Gibraltar as part of their honeymoon to the various countries of the Commonwealth.
Franco ranted and raved.
Gibraltar dressed itself up in red, white and blue.
Every patio, every Street and even cars were decorated with the Union Jack. We were British, she was our Queen and we are proud of this .... and if along the way we could snob our noses to the little dictator we would do so in spades!

I was in the Boy Scouts movement as a boy of 8 years, a Wolf Cub, learning to march, doing knots, camaraderie, taking pride in my uniform and sharing quality time with my friends under our Scoutmaster the late Joseph (Pepe) Benyunes. It was possibly even a rite of passage for boys to join the Scouts movement and we did so joyfully and with other boys from all parts of our society. Boys had the Cubs and then the Scouts, including Sea Scouts. Girls had the Brownies and then Girls Scouts. It was arranged that the boys and girls in their respective troops would do a Parade of Honour to Her Majesty at the Alameda Gardens. Still today, entering the Gardens from the wide staircase on the North you can see the mosaic of E II R and the date 1954 in commemoration of her visit.

 Our Wolf Cub Patrol would form part of a circle around a monument at the top of the staircase and Her Majesty and Prince Philip would walk around this parade, our tribute to them. Naturally my father, a keen cinematographer, with his own Voigtlander 8mm camera was going to be there to proudly record his son as near as possible to Her Majesty on that day. Mum was also going to be there are dressed in the nicest summer frock. If it was the event of the century for Gibraltar it was doubly so for our family. After all, just how many Bentatas ever got to meet her Royal Highness? (Or vice versa for that matter LOL)

As luck would have it my father could not attend. There must have been a very pressing reason for this but I can't remember what it was. Mum, an avid royalist through and through, (aren’t we all that in Gib?) decided she would go alone with the cine camera and film the event herself. Came the day, and she make sure my shoes were polished, my cap was straight on my head, my socks will held up with elastic garters (don't ask!) and off we went; me to join my Troop and she in the spectators area where she managed to push herself to the front row.
After an interminable wait, …. though perhaps it wasn't that long, except that for boys and girls having to stand straight for longer than 10 minutes was a strain on our patience….. the Royal Couple arrived flanked by be-medalled military, formally dressed politicians, representatives of various uniformed and non-uniformed departments and of course the Governor.
Her Majesty walked around the Brownies, the Girl Scouts, the Wolf Cubs, the Scouts and everyone else who was there for her, and graciously stopped to exchange a few words with one and another along the way.
I could see Mum across the parade, cine camera to her face, Queen Elizabeth approached me ..... and then walked straight on to speak to some other Cub or Scout two places on! In less than a quarter of the time it took to prepare the parade the Royal Couple left and everyone was marched back to pre-arranged meeting points and from there to go home.

When I arrived home, after being dismissed, I think I was in a sulky mood. All that dressing up washing and combing, cleaning my nails, shine my shoes, standing around for hours ... all for what? The excitement of a Royal Visit to an 8-year old has a very short expiry date.
Dad had just arrived back from the shop.
Mum had changed from her frock to housecoat, and normality reigned at home again.

"Pepe," she called to Dad as soon as walked in, " I don't know how to remove the film so please do it so we can send it to England to be developed... It was beautiful, Pepe, you should have seen David! He was so smart in his uniform ... And the Queen passed by next to him...." she was gushing excitedly.

" Tete ..." (my Mum's nickname which everyone knew her by) replied Dad ... "pero tu cargate el camera con la pelicula que te deje en la mesa?"

("Tete, but did you load the camera with the film I left on the table?")

Oh-oh .... this was going to be Hiroshima and Nagasaki rolled in to one!

"WHAT!?!?"

"I left the bag with a new roll of film there on the sideboard to load the...."

"You never said anything, Pepe..."

"Yes I did! You were tying David's laces in the bedroom and I told you...."

"But I thought you were saying you were loading it then, at the table...."

"No ...no, I was saying I would load the film on my way up to the parade...."

"PEPE, POR DIOS!"  (Pepe, for God’s sake!)

"Tete, no te pongas asi..."  (Tete, dont get that way…)

Well ... you can imagine the frost at home between them after that ....
Me?
At that age.... I really didn't care. I was glad it was over, glad there was no more marching up and down to do, and happy to continue life as normal.

I wonder if Her Majesty was disappointed ..... ?
By way of compensation, here is a link with a Pathe film at the time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0Il1gXmgo

aahhhh ... but there is a "Part 2" to this chapter .... for which we need to fast forward to 2002 I think .... watch this space!