No 922 Tuesday 7th - Sunday 12th June 2022
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THE GOOD AND THE NOT SO G O O D G AT H E R I N M A D R I D
here were plenty of them, 250 or more, of the good and the not so good, as members of the British Community gathered in Madrid at the residence of her Majesty’s Ambassador, Hugh Elliott, to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on 2 June.
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The festivities to commemorate Her Majesty’s 70 years on the throne might not have had the ‘celebrities’ that were simultaneously gathering along the Mall and at the Party in the Palace, but we did have our own ‘Queen of the Costa Blanca’, Stevie Spit BEM, who provided much of the afternoon’s entertainment with his two sets of songs from many of the West End’s popular musicals. The guests included representatives of many Costa Blanca and Costa de Sol charities with a presentation made to one of them by HMA, MABS Cancer Support Foundation, prior to the start of the event. The charity Vice President, Beverley Thompson, who was also among four UK nationals in Spain named on the same day in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, received the Knox Shield from HMA in appreciation of the support that MABS provide to the RBL
in respect of the emotional, physical and psychological support to cancer sufferers across the Costa Blanca and Costa Calida. This is a Worldwide Award that was made during the recent RBL National Conference held in London. Of course there were also many other charities represented including HELP at home Costa Blanca, Costa Women, the Royal British Legion, the Royal Air Force Association, as well as Adintre, Age Concern, Support in Spain, Cudeca and the English Cemetery in Malaga. Other guests included San Fulgencio’s British councillors, Samantha Hull and Darren Parmenter, along with Richie Sparks of Big FM, Guardia Officer Francesco Morales of N332, and of course The Leader Newspaper, which made a pre party presentation to HMA of the book ‘Leverkus’ documenting the humanitarian efforts of Cartagena’s British Consul, Manchester born William Leverkus, during the Spanish Civil War. Compiled by retired Colonel Antonio CortiñasGuntin, a historian at Cartagena Military Museum, the book is a record of his civil war diaries. It was published last year in Spanish and is now about to be released in English.
STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE FOUR