Joshua Hassan

Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan (21 August 1915 – 1 July 1997), nicknamed "Salvador" (Saviour), was a Gibraltarian politician, and first mayor and Chief Minister of Gibraltar, serving four terms as chief minister for a total of over 20 years. He is seen as the key figure in the civil rights movement in Gibraltar, and played a key role in the creation of the territory's institutions of self-government. Early life Born to a Sephardic Jewish family from Morocco and Menorca, he trained as a lawyer at Middle Temple and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1939. When World War II broke out, he volunteered as a gunner in the Gibraltar Defence Force and remained in Gibraltar when most of the civilian population had been evacuated and only a small number of Gibraltarians remained. Career Chief minister of Gibraltar In September 1942, a group of fellow Gibraltarians, clerks and workers, led by trade-unionist Albert Risso, came together to form an association advocating the return of the evacuees and the civil rights of the local inhabitants of Gibraltar. They asked Hassan to join them. Initially named "The Gibraltarian Association", upon Hassan's advice, the group took a much more ambitious name: The Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights in Gibraltar (AACR). Hassan was the vice-president of the party under the leadership of Risso. In 1948, Hassan succeeded him as president and was the leader of the AACR and the dominant figure in the politics of the territory for almost fourty years.