technology people
James Galliano accounting for time... Jimmy Galliano MBE, 77, is an unsung hero of Gibraltar who does a huge amount of pro bono work for the good of the community without seeking fame or any form of acknowledgment. Jimmy, a Justice of the Peace until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65, was honoured with the granting of a Knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1985 for his work for the Catholic Church, and in 1998 his service to the Gibraltar community was rewarded with an MBE. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. On the sporting front he was Commodore of the Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club 1981-84 and a committee member of the Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande. Jimmy was born in Gibraltar, the
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son of Anthony and Luisa Galliano (a member of the Villarejo family from Malaga). His education started with private tuition from the legendary teacher Mr Dudley, the great uncle of the present Chief Justice, and after a year at Line Wall College his education was some-
what disrupted by the advent of the Second World War. When he was seven years old his family moved to Campamento for about six months but, finding life in post Civil War Spain difficult, they moved on to Tangier. The Christian Brothers, rather than moving back
The good news for these young accountants was that income tax had started in 1954 and more and more companies were looking for accountants
to Ireland from Gibraltar, started a school in Tangier to teach Gibraltarian evacuees. This was well organised and highly successful. When the war ended the family returned to the Rock and Jimmy enrolled at the Sacred Heart School where the teachers were a combination of local and military. The military teachers helped out until the Christian Brothers returned in 1947. Jimmy entered the Grammar School in 1948 where he was taught by, amongst others, Brothers Foley, Taylor and Finnegan and found the strict discipline invigorating after the more relaxed teaching in
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2010