charity
by Sonia Golt
Guitar Virtuoso
William Gomez MBE (1939-2000)
Gibraltar’s guitar virtuoso William Gomez died from cancer in the year 2000 after a short illness A child prodigy, he began playing guitar at just nine years of age and took lessons every single day. His love for the guitar showed not only in technique but with the feeling and emotions that stirred everybody in the audience even as early as his first recital at the age of 12. By the 1960s he was rated in the top 5 in the world of classical guitar. William spent many months in Madrid studying with Narciso Yepes who said he had never seen anyone with the talent of this young boy from Gibraltar! Later William formed a group with other talented musicians locally called Vibrations and together they toured Britain and accompanied Michael Ball and Shirley Bassey performing in many well known venues in UK including the Royal Festival Hall in London, and they released two albums. As a music teacher in Gibraltar, William shared his talent and techniques with many of the younger generation. All this, plus his production work with the Miss Gibraltar pageants, helped to earn him an MBE for his services to music and the community (1990). William was married twice, and has two sons and daughter. Shortly before he died William composed an arrangement of the Ave Maria which has received much acclaim locally and abroad. n
William Gomez MBE
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Robert Gomez and family on the first Walk for William in 2007
Robert Gomez:
I would walk 900 miles This month Robert Gomez will, for the second time since his brother William’s untimely death in 2000, walk in his memory in aid of charity. The challenge of the walk is bigger this time around though, not only because of the greater distance (1,500km) but also because Robert has not fully recovered from injuries sustained during a fall. “At the moment the contingency plan for the walk is that we will load my rucksack onto a buggy, which Ana Maria, my wife, will pull along. I haven’t told her yet!” he laughs. The actual walk starts in Gibraltar and covers the approximately 1,500km (over 900 miles) to Finisterre in north west Spain. “We will be starting our walk on 17th April and hope to reach Finisterre sometime in June, hopefully in time for my 65th birthday. We have set aside 70 days in which to complete this challenge which will entail walking an average of 13 miles a day.” Robert will raise funds for the Sam Beare Hospice in Weybridge which looks after terminally ill people and has a very good outreach programme where they help and advise patients and their families at home. “Due largely to the recession and a consequent drop in funding, the hospice needs our urgent support,” says Robert. In Gibraltar, Research into Childhood Cancer, which supports research at Great Ormond Street
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Hospital in London, is the chosen charity. “This was set up in 1989 by one of my best friends Anthony Sacarello and his wife Margaret, following the death of one of their sons, Philip, aged nine, from Neuroblastoma, a deadly form of childhood cancer. Sadly, Anthony passed away himself last year also from cancer, so our fund raising this year has added poignancy.” How did the idea of doing this walk first come about? “I was looking for some way to mark the 10th anniversary of William’s death, but not in a sad way. In 2007 I walked the whole of the Thames Path (some 213 miles) in his memory. This seemed to fire the imagination of the public not only in Gibraltar but also in the UK. I then thought maybe I could do another walk but this time make it a longer, more demanding one. “For a number of years my wife Ana Maria and I have been toying with the idea of walking along one of the pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela. As we explored this a bit further we came to the conclusion we just had to start in Gibraltar, walk to Seville and from there take the Via de La Plata Pilgrim Way to Santiago. And then we thought ‘Why stop in Santiago — we might as well walk to Finisterre on the Galician
At the moment the contingency plan for the walk is that we will load my rucksack onto a buggy, which Ana Maria, my wife, will pull along. I haven’t told her yet!
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GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • APRIL 2010