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Sport and Gibraltar – Problematizing a Supposed ‘Problem’, 1713–1954

2012; Routledge; Volume: 32; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17460263.2011.660350

1746-0271

Gareth Stockey,

Hispanic-African Historical Relations

Abstract This article examines some of the key features of sporting life in the British colony of Gibraltar, from the date of its cession in 1713 to the aggressive revival of Spain's claim to the Rock in the early years of the Franco dictatorship. While sport and leisure have been peripheral concerns for most individuals writing about the history of Gibraltar, published work on the subject has tended to suggest that sport confirms traditional views of the steady development of a 'British Gibraltarian' identity, and one that is constructed in opposition to a perceived Spanish 'other'. The present work demonstrates how a focus on sport and leisure can present the historian with a much more complex picture of Gibraltarian identity in its formative years, and offer a more nuanced understanding of the ongoing 'Gibraltar Problem'. Acknowledgements I would like to extend my thanks to Stephen Constantine, Chris Ealham, Chris Grocott and John Walton for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article. Notes 1. See, for example, B. Stoddart, 'Cultural Imperialism and British Response in the British Empire', Comparative Studies in History and Society 30, no. 4 (1988), 649–73; J.A. Mangan ed., Pleasure, Profit and Proselytism: British Culture and Sport at Home and Abroad, 1700–1914 (London: Frank Cass, 1988); H. Perkin, 'Teaching the Nations How to Play: Sport and Society in the British Empire and Commonwealth', International Journal of the History of Sport 6, no. 2 (1989) 145–55; J.A. Mangan, ed., The Cultural Bond: Sport, Empire and Society (London: Frank Cass, 1992). 2. Figures taken from the CIA World Factbook, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gi.html 3. A summary of the historiography of Gibraltar is provided in the 'Bibliographic Note' of C. Grocott and G. Stockey, Gibraltar: A Modern History (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2012). For Gibraltar as a case study of wider imperial phenomenon, see S. Constantine, 'Monarchy and Constructing Identity in "British" Gibraltar', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 34, (2006), 23–44; C. Grocott, 'A Good Soldier, but a Maligned Governor: General Sir Archibald Hunter, Governor of Gibraltar 1910–1913', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 37, no. 3 (2009) 421–39. 4. See, for example, 'John Ochello: the White Bomber', The Gibraltar Magazine, May 2010; 'Charlie Conroy's 50 Fighting Years', The Gibraltar Magazine, January 2011. Most of the websites of local sporting associations offer a short history. See, for example, the website of the Gibraltar Football Association: http://www.gfa.gi/gfa.php?section=History&page=The+GFA 5. P. Gold, 'Sport as a Political Tool: The Case of Spain and Gibraltar', The Sports Historian 22 (2002), 164–77; E.G. Archer, 'Imperial Influences: Gibraltarians, Cultural Bonding and Sport', Culture, Sport, Society 6, no. 1 (2003), 43–60. A recent, and very welcome, Gibraltarian venture into this area of study is J. Ballantine Perera, 'Pablo Larios y el Royal Calpe Hunt como ejemplo de relaciones transfronterizas entre Gibraltar y España durante el siglo XIX y principios del XX', Historia Contemporánea 41 (2011) 345–71. Ballantine Perera highlights several ways in which sport throws light on cross-frontier relations in the period, but says very little about how such practices influenced (or offer insight into) civilian Gibraltarian society in the period. 6. For a sense, albeit slightly polemical, of restrictions on political and cultural discourse in Gibraltar see F. Oliva, The Frontiers of Doubt (Tarifa: Editorial Acento, 2004). 7. The most frequently cited general histories of Gibraltar are G. Hills, Rock of Contention: A History of Gibraltar (London: Hale, 1974) and W.G.F. Jackson, The Rock of the Gibraltarians: A History of Gibraltar (Grendon: Gibraltar Books, 1990). In terms of an analysis of the formation of civilian identity in Gibraltar, both have now been surpassed by S. Constantine, Community, Society and Identity: The Making of Modern Gibraltar since 1704 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009). 8. Archer, 'Imperial Influences', 46–49. 9. Archer, 'Imperial Influences', 58–59. The globalization of all but one of these sporting endeavours (i.e. cricket) and their popularity among social and economic elites outside of the former British Empire might suggest that other factors could also explain the continued popularity of these activities in twenty-first century Gibraltar. Beyond the traditional and 'indigenous' civilian elite, the Rock now plays (second) home to a broad strata of affluent British expatriates, European businessmen and allegedly the odd international celebrity. David Beckham, for example, was rumoured to be buying a house in Gibraltar after his move to Real Madrid in the summer of 2003. See Panorama (Gibraltar), 21 July 2003. For a flavour of Gibraltar's self-representation to international financial elites, see the Government of Gibraltar website: http://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/on-business 10. Archer, 'Imperial Influences', 58–9. 11. This process in fact began shortly after the Second World War. It is no coincidence that this was also a period when Britain had embarked on a deliberate policy of 'anglicizing' the Gibraltarians, and that the first written expression of this narrative was produced by the British Director of Education on the Rock in 1946. See H.W. Howes, The Gibraltarian: The Origins and Evolution of the People of Gibraltar (Gibraltar: Medsun, 1991 reprint; orig. publisher unknown, 1951). The trend has been followed in Hills, Rock of Contention, chs 31–3; and Jackson, The Rock of the Gibraltarians, chs 15–17. More recently, local scholars have emphasized the creation of a distinctly Gibraltarian identity, but one which remains 'British', and one which is built in opposition to Spain. See T.J. Finlayson, The Fortress Came First (Grendon: Gibraltar Books, 1991); J. Garcia, Gibraltar: the Making of a People (Gibraltar: Medsun, 1994). 12. Archer, 'Imperial Influences', 49. 13. Women were certainly more likely to act as spectators than participants, but since Archer sees participation as key to the process of cultural bonding, the degree to which this process was successful with women is questionable. 14. J.D. Stewart, Gibraltar: The Keystone (London: Murray, 1967), 220. On the structural, cultural and psychological barriers between civilian and 'British' Gibraltar before the Second World War, see G. Stockey, Gibraltar: A Dagger in the Spine of Spain? (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2009), ch. 1. 15. The Gibraltarian journalist Paco Oliva recounts how he felt compelled to hide his support for Barcelona as a schoolchild in the 1970s, since Gibraltarian children were expected to support British teams: 'The dividing line between Britain and Spain was still very clear; even in sport, and even among 12-year-old children.' Following the gradual reopening of the Gibraltar frontier in the 1980s, he argues that it became acceptable for Gibraltarians to follow Spanish teams who were considered 'anti-Spanish', such as Barcelona or Athletic Bilbao. More recently, even Real Madrid has a popular following on the Rock. See Oliva, The Frontiers of Doubt, 273–6. 16. See, for example, the respective comment pieces by Paco Oliva in the Gibraltar Chronicle, 20 July 2010 and 1 June 2011. See also Panorama (Gibraltar), 13 July 2010, and the response to Oliva's reports in the same newspaper: Panorama (Gibraltar), 26 July 2010. 17. For a critique of and counterpoint to this trend, see Grocott and Stockey, Gibraltar, ch. 4. 18. For a detailed analysis of the diplomatic dispute in recent decades, see P. Gold, Gibraltar: British or Spanish? (London: Routledge, 2005). 19. Gold does in fact acknowledge these other Spanish considerations. For Catalan pressure, see the website of the Catalan Football Federation: http://www.fcf.cat/pub/home.asp. For an example of a Basque pressure group, see http://www.esait.org/default.cfm?hizkuntza=1&atala=sorrera 20. The Guardian (UK), 19 February 2008. 21. See, for example, Report to Chief of Police, Gibraltar, regarding meeting of Gibraltar Transport and General Workers' Union, Theatre Royal, 12 June 1921, Gibraltar Government Archive (hereafter GGA) Year Files, MP 219/1921. See also the correspondence in the Gibraltar Chronicle, 9 and 11 November 1921. 22. Gibraltar Chronicle, 7 June 1921. 23. Smith-Dorrien to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 11 May 1923, GGA Year Files, MP C/16/2923; H.L. Smith-Dorrien, Memories of Forty-Eight Years Service (London: Murray, 1925) ch. 12. 24. Stockey, Gibraltar: A Dagger, 182–197. 25. If this was indeed a motivation for timetabling the Gibraltar festival at this time, it bespoke a friendly local rivalry, rather than the more fractious cross-frontier relationship which was to follow. 26. Gibraltar Chronicle, 7 May 1949. 27. Colonial Annual Report, Gibraltar, 1950–1951 (HMSO, London, 1951) 28. Stockey, Gibraltar: A Dagger, ch. 8. 29. Archer, 'Imperial Influences', p. 58. 30. Europa Point is the most southerly point of the Gibraltar peninsula. Its symbolic importance is multifaceted, ranging from the diplomatic/military significance of its view of the Strait, to the religious importance of the Catholic Shrine of Our Lady of Europe. St Bernard is the patron saint of Gibraltar. 31. There is, admittedly, no hard evidence to cite in this regard. No sporting memoirs exist in Gibraltar for this period, there is no tradition of recording oral testimony and, finally, as outlined in the introduction, almost nothing has been produced from within the territory on the subject. Most contemporary accounts of sporting fixtures are found in the Gibraltar Chronicle, but this was a garrison newspaper, written with the military and colonial administration in mind, and unlikely to report any suggestion of tension between the garrison and civilian communities. There exists, however, a sizeable literature on the importance of sporting fixtures in solidifying identities among indigenous and colonial populations against the British (and particularly English) 'other'. See, for example Stoddart, 'Cultural Imperialism', especially 667–9; G. Armstrong and J.P. Mitchell, 'Players, Patrons and Politicians: Oppositional Cultures in Maltese Football', in Fear and Loathing in World Football, eds G. Armstrong and R. Giulianotti (Oxford: Berg, 2001), ch. 9. Even within a British context, sport has of course played a prominent role in developing non-English nationalisms. See, for example, G. Jarvie, ed., Sport in the Making of Celtic Cultures (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1999); G. Jarvie and J. Burnett, eds, Sport, Scotland and the Scots (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000); M. Johnes, History of Sport in Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2005). 32. 'John Ochello: the White Bomber', The Gibraltar Magazine, May 2010. 33. ABC (Madrid), 2 January 1924. Similar reports abound in the newspaper in these years. See, for example, 26 December 1923, 16 December 1924. The amity – tinged of course with local rivalry – belies the fact that Spain was then under the nationalistic and authoritarian dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera, who might have been expected to revive the 'eternal' issue of Gibraltar, but in fact showed little enthusiasm for irredentism. See Stockey, Gibraltar: A Dagger, ch. 2. 34. Madrid Sport, 23 December 1918. 35. Madrid Sport, 4 January 1917 and 1 November 1917. 36. The name Dockyard FC of course introduces the possibility that teams were forming around occupation and social class, and not 'nationalist' sentiment. 37. Madrid Sport, 9 December 1919. 38. See, for example, Madrid Sport, 11 October 1920, 28 May 1921, 6 June 1922 and 19 October 1922. 39. Madrid Sport, 19 June 1924. 40. See, for example, the reports of matches appearing in ABC, 26 December 1923, 2 January 1924 (previously cited); El Sol, 12 July 1922. 41. Madrid Sport, 10 July 1922. 42. Madrid Sport, 1 March 1919, 13 March 1919. 43. A brief resume of cross-frontier footballing links can be seen in Colonial Secretary to Fortress Head Quarters, 5 October 1933: GGA Year Files, MP 282/1929. 44. On the jealous guarding of access to sports, both by the British and indigenous elites, see Stoddart, 'Cultural Imperialism', 662–3. 45. Gibraltar Chronicle, 9 July 1951, 12 April 1951, 28 January 1952. On cross-frontier boxing see 'Gibraltar Joe's Boxing Legacy', The Gibraltar Magazine, February 2011. 46. See, for example, Gibraltar Chronicle, 9 August 1945. See also the remarks in 'Gibraltar Joe's Boxing Legacy', The Gibraltar Magazine, February 2011. 47. Gibraltar Chronicle, 13 August 1945. 48. Gibraltar Chronicle, 22 August 1945 49. Gibraltar Chronicle, 8 April 1947. 50. Gibraltar Chronicle, 7 June 1949. 51. Gibraltar Census, 1951, GGA. 52. Archer, 'Imperial Influences', 47–8. A fuller account of the Calpe Hunt is provided in G. Fergusson, The Hounds Are Home: A History of the Royal Calpe Hunt (London: Springwood, 1979), 175. For the role of Larios, see Ballantine Perera, 'Pablo Larios'. 53. On the request, see 'Personal note from Harington to Secretary of State for the Colonies', 30 November 1937, The National Archives: Public Record Office (hereafter TNA: PRO), Colonial Office Files (hereafter CO) 91/504/13. For the parliamentary debate, see Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 17 and 24 November 1937. 54. L.A. Sawchuk, J. Padiak and J. Purcell, 'Quantifying the Colonized/Colonist Relationship: Suicide as a Comparative Measure of Stress in Gibraltar', Current Anthropology 1 (2004), 118–124. 55. This was the euphemism applied by one Colonial Secretary of Gibraltar to an old form of cross-frontier interaction: Colonel Beattie to Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, 13 September 1937, TNA: PRO, CO 91/502/13. 56. Gibraltar Chronicle, 17 March 1947. 57. I. Benyunes, 'Gibraltar during the Spanish Civil War,' Gibraltar Heritage Journal 2 (1994), 49–55. The 'North Front' refers to the flat ground to the north of the Rock of Gibraltar and facing the Spanish frontier. By the early twentieth century a racecourse had been situated here, and it remained in use despite the development of a temporary airfield running over the site after the First World War. The construction of a permanent military runway and air base at the North Front during the Second World War saw the end of domestic horse racing at Gibraltar. 58. J. Larios, Combat Over Spain: Memoirs of a Nationalist Fighter Pilot (London: Spearman, 1968), ch. 1. Fergusson, The Hounds Are Home, 223–7. 59. Stockey, Gibraltar: A Dagger, 25–9. The most detailed study of this group is C. Grocott, 'The Moneyed Class of Gibraltar, c. 1880–1939' (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Lancaster, 2006). 60. See, for example, Gibraltar Chronicle, 19 January 1946, 1 February 1946, 27 August 1949, 5 January 1950, 11 May 1950. See also ABC (Madrid), 26 December 1945 and 7 January 1950 for reports of a regular cup competition between Balompédica and the champions of the Gibraltar league. 61. Gibraltar Chronicle, 6 December 1946. 62. Gibraltar Chronicle, 16 February 1949. 63. Gibraltar Chronicle, 26 October 1949. 64. Gibraltar Chronicle, 4 November 1949, 23 November 1949. The GFA lost an exciting match to Sevilla by a score of 6–4. See ABC (Madrid), 29 November 1949. 65. Gibraltar Chronicle, 23 November 1949. 66. Gibraltar Chronicle, 27 August 1949. 67. Gibraltar Chronicle, 27 October 1949. 68. Gibraltar Chronicle, 11 November 1949. 69. See for example the reports in Gibraltar Chronicle, 4 March 1949, 6 January 1950, 27 March 1950. 70. Gibraltar Chronicle, 10 February 1951. 71. Testimony of Mr J. Rosado to the author, November 2003. Mr Rosado was a senior civil servant on the Rock for many years. 72. Often referred to simply as 'the Falange' or 'Movimiento', the FET y de las JONS (Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS) was formed after the forced amalgamation of various right-wing political parties during the Spanish Civil War and became the sole official political party in Franco's Spain. 73. British Consul General, Tetuan, to Foreign Secretary, 12 March 1949, TNA: PRO, Foreign Office Files (FO) 371/73932. 74. The politics and mythology of Spanish club football, including the perception of Real Madrid as 'Franco's team', is dealt with in the extremely readable P. Ball, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football (London: WSC Books, 2001). 75. Gibraltar Chronicle, 9 May 1951. 76. Stewart, Gibraltar: The Keystone, 294. 77. The occasion also marked the opening of the José Antonio Stadium and the Francisco Franco Sporting City. José Antonio Primo de Rivera was the founder of the Spanish fascist party, Falange Española, and his cult of el ausente (the absent one) had been a key part of Francoist propaganda since his execution during the Spanish Civil War. 78. ABC (Madrid), 16 October 1969.