Aug 19 - Celebration To Mark Sir Joshua Hassan's 100th Birthday
A celebration to mark the 100th birthday of Gibraltar’s first Chief Minister Sir Joshua Hassan was widely attended by friends, family and colleagues at Boyd’s earlier today.
To mark the occasion, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo surprised guests with the announcement of the first £100 polymer note will be issued with an image of Sir Joshua on the note, and a life size statue will be commissioned and placed in the city centre. His legacy will also be commemorated with the new affordable homes being named Hassan Centenary Terraces.
Sir Joshua served in Gibraltar politics for more than 40 years, and shortly after World War Two, became one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights in Gibraltar (AACR). He continued his political advancement, becoming Mayor, then Chief Member and eventually becoming the first Chief Minister of Gibraltar. He passed away at the age of 81, but his legacy continues.
Speaking after a short presentation celebrating Sir Joshua’s political life and achievements, Mr Picardo said he was honoured to speak as the fifth successor in office of the great man whose legacy lives on.
He added: “We will all remember him with fondness for different reasons, for different acts of friendship or different acts of kindness. Those memories are personal to each of us. But they also shape the public legacy of a man whose epitaph as the political "father of the Gibraltarians" is entirely unchallenged. For when even his adversaries remember their relationships with Sir Joshua with great fondness and regard him with such affection, history, in its telling of his life, cannot but treat him as kindly as he went about making it.
"Because we are celebrating today the life of a man who walked our streets with a newly crowned Queen in 1954 as comfortably as he had and would walk them with friends, fellow Gibraltar Defence Force volunteers or with his most humble constituent. And these are not common virtues. For Joshua Hassan was not an ordinary man."
Speaking at the event, Sir Joshua’s daughter Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, wanted to thank everyone on behalf of her family, including the Chief Minister and the Government of Gibraltar.
She said: “What you have done is to ensure Gibraltar’s rich 20th Century history goes into the identity of the 21st Century Gibraltar.”
Describing her father as a lover of people, who was a firm believer in the benevolence of people and trusted the goodness of people, Ms Hassan-Nahoum would like to urge everyone to take a part of her father’s legacy, which was “to strive to find what unites us as people, and not what divides us”.
Sir Joshua’s other daughter Marlene Hassan-Nahon is following in her father’s footsteps by making a career in politics.
She said: “I am very humbled and very honoured that Gibraltar and the Government of Gibraltar has remembered my father in this way, and the tributes they have surprised us with today is very fitting.
“We are very grateful that the Government have reacted in this way for a man who did so much and worked so hard for Gibraltar.
“As for me going into politics, it’s a bit like déjà vu for my family, but ultimately they are very happy because for us it’s all about serving Gibraltarians and serving people.
“I can never expect or pretend to reach the heights that he reached, but I’d like to continue doing his good work.”
Sir Joshua’s wife, Lady Marcelle Hassan said: “I feel very grateful and very pleased to see everyone work so hard to celebrate my late husband’s life.
“I am very happy to celebrate this with my family and my grandchildren and everyone else here today.”
Those who knew Sir Joshua paid tributes to him.
Jaime Levy, President of the Jewish Community in Gibraltar, said: “Sir Joshua was above all a superb human being, a kind man, a man who spent his life trying to help people selflessly, and I think the way he is being commemorated today is a reflection of the man he was.
“He united all religions and all creeds, and was a man who in the morning was with his most humble constituents and in the evening he would be with the Queen, and he would meet them both in the same way.”
A group of youngsters – David Diaz, Mark Montegriffo, James Barton and Yitzi Marrache - started a Facebook page to mark Sir Joshua’s 100th birthday in October last year.
Speaking to Your Gibraltar TV, David explained that they were introduced to each other through Marlene. They had the same ideas to celebrate or mark the occasion in some way and met with the Chief Minister to discuss their ideas.
David, whose grandfather was in the AACR with Sir Joshua, added: “Like the Chief Minister said, we have statues of Lord Nelson and other people, so why not Sir Joshua, who is such a pivotal figure even 18 years after his death, and to mark 100years of his birth.”
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