Sir Joshua Hassan
Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan, defender of Gibraltar, died on July 1st, aged 81
IN JUNE 1969, Spain, then a dictatorship under General Franco, closed its border with Gibraltar. Sir Joshua Hassan, the chief minister of the Rock, reckoned that this was the 15th siege the place had faced since it was taken by the British in 1704. He had no doubt, he assured Gibraltarians, that it would survive the latest threat. Sieges, survival: Sir Joshua often stiffened his language with a military turn of phrase, a practice that he had probably picked up in the second world war when, as simply Gunner Hassan, he had served in the army on the Rock.
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