school under the Irish Christian Brothers. Six months National Service in the Gibraltar Defence Force was completed in March 1957. Before being demobbed he was a founder member of the Rock Gunners Hockey Club — still a strong force in local hockey. Tournaments were played in Madrid, Lisbon and the Folkestone Festival. He competed in the hockey tournament and was invited to be a guest player for the Royal Artillery team but refused because of his pending wedding. Charlie is a versatile sportsman representing Gibraltar at hockey, cricket, tennis, and squash. Together with Keith Hoare, Gerald Restano, Louis Montegriffo and Hubert Corby he is a founder member of the Gibraltar Squash Club. His most memorable sporting cutting was a photograph in Slim Simpson’s column in the Gibraltar Chronicle of him in the Gallardo’s bullring in Los Barrios testing a young bull under the caption ‘Our photograph shows Charlie Galliano trying his hand in the bullring’. In 1959 he joined the Civil Service (Education Department) where Henry Belshaw was Director. Charlie was introduced to Paula, his future wife, on the first night of the 1964 La Linea fair. It was almost romance at first sight and after a
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We agreed a date and I was sworn to total secrecy as the couple wanted to avoid press coverage with hordes of journalists and photographers. brief courtship he proposed to her at a Naval Officers’ Pavilion disco. They were officially engaged the following year after he had asked her father for her hand in marriage at his house in Woking. They were married in 1965 at St. Dunstan’s Church in Woking. Charlie moved to the Central Registry and later to the Magistrates Court where he was clerk in charge of Births, Deaths and Marriages and also the Court Spanish English interpreter. Then came the most exciting moment in his career. Charlie takes up the story: “Around March 1969 I was telephoned by Peter Brown who was managing the Beatles following the suicide of Brian Epstein. He declared that a Beatle wanted to marry in Gibraltar as under the Governor’s Special Licence there was no requirement to stay on the Rock for a period of time. I asked him to send the paperwork for me to review as John had been married before. This was done and then a date had to be arranged. We agreed a date and I was sworn to total secrecy as the couple wanted to avoid press coverage with hordes of journalists and photographers. “We arranged for John and Yoko to charter a private plane from British Airways and fly to Paris. Peter Brown told me that John Lennon would telephone me during the morning before they left Paris. “The next morning at 8am John Lennon called me and told me the approximate time he
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • APRIL 2014
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This photo and above: Charlie Galliano with the happy couple — John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Rock Gunners Hockey Club
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