Evacuation of the Gibraltarian civilian population during World War II

The civilian evacuees were sent to numerous locations, including London, Madeira and Jamaica; some spent up to a decade away from Gibraltar, but the majority returned in 1943 after the Allied invasion of Sicily.

[1] Although Crichton was unable to obtain permission to clean and restock his ships (and contrary to Admiralty orders which forbade the taking on of evacuees), when he saw the mass of civilians pouring through the dockyards, he opened his gangways for boarding.

[1] On 3 July 1940, the British Mediterranean Fleet had conducted the attack on Mers-el-Kébir and destroyed a number of French warships, to prevent them being handed over to the Germans.

[4] When the evacuees arrived at Gibraltar, the Governor, Sir Clive Liddell, would not allow them to land, fearing that once they were back on the Rock, it would be virtually impossible to evacuate them a second time.

[5] After receiving instructions from London, a landing was allowed as long as the evacuees returned when other ships arrived to take them away from The Rock, and by 13 July the re-evacuation back to Gibraltar had been completed.

[5] British Conservative politician Oliver Stanley agreed to accept the evacuees in the United Kingdom, but he argued with Gibraltar over the number of people involved.

[5] He asked for the situation to be clarified, stressing the shortage of accommodation in Britain and insisting that only 13,000 could be accepted, 2,000 of whom were to be sent to the Portuguese island of Madeira[5] in July and August 1940.

[5] Concern for them in Gibraltar mounted as the air raids against London intensified, coupled with the arrival of harrowing letters, describing the circumstances in which the evacuees were living.

[12] Although the Governor, Lieutenant General Sir Noel Mason-Macfarlane, fought valiantly on behalf of the evacuees and did not accept the lack of accommodation as a sufficient reason for the delays,[12] as late as 1947, there were still 2,000 people in Northern Irish camps.