DRIVING FORCE: JIMMY DALMEDO
From watering the, ‘palmera en el quarry’ and to giving the Iron Lady’s hand a shake through decades of ferrying Gibraltar’s most important VIPs and their equally important visitors, always with one thing forever present in his mind... mmmum’s the word! BY RICHARD CARTWRIGHT
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immy has no airs about him, despite having chauffeured for no less than five of our Chief Ministers - only missing out on CM Sir Bob Peliza in the early 70s. He chronicles his previous jobs, “That’s right, and I don’t mind telling you I was a messenger in the Dockyard in the 70s and joined Government as a driver in the Public Works Department (PWD) mainly driving the water bowser – La Bota!”. Keeping the townscape green was his task until he moved on 46
to government staff cars driving for the Director of Public Works. The trend then, as now, is that when other staff car drivers go on leave, you’re asked to fill in, so Jimmy would invariably cover for the Mayor’s driver and the CMs – Sir Joshua Hassan, at that time. “Yes, this would happen from time to time until I became the Mayor’s driver followed by Sir Joshua’s, full-time.
During that time I had applied for the Deputy Governor’s driver’s job but I didn’t get it!” And really, as they say, the rest is history! It’s been nonstop driving G1 from the very early 80s serving for Sir Joshua first, then Adolfo Canepa in 1987, Sir Joe Bossano from 1988 to 1996, when Sir Peter Caruana entered No 6 through to 2011, right up
Joe Bossano initially didn’t want a driver.
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019