After the summer recess, the museum lecture series on the History of Gibraltar resumes next Tuesday. Tom Finlayson, former Government Archivist, will be talking about his specialist subject, the History of the Gibraltarians. Tom is an established historian and author. Among his books are two seminal works – The Fortress Came First and Gibraltar: Military Fortress or Commercial Colony.

The talk will analyse the various factors and elements, which have gone into the development of the Gibraltarian as we know him/her today.

It opens with an analysis of the various factors, which go into the shaping of a people’s characteristics: racial and cultural origins, geographical, educational and political influences. It then goes on to analyse how a civilian population developed on the Rock over the past three hundred years. This analysis will be demonstrated with the help of a number of charts showing the various elements, which have gone into what might be termed "the Gibraltarian mix". It explains why this population remained relatively small throughout the 18th Century and why it increased dramatically in the nineteenth. It shows how these people lived and what they did for a living. The analysis is then taken into the 20th Century and the important developments with took place in the 1930s and 1940s, which contributed so strongly towards the shaping of the Gibraltarian identity.

The event is open to the public and will be held at the John Mackintosh Hall next Tuesday 22nd October, at 7pm.