For Charles Wilson, coming to Gibraltar was a childhood revisited

American Charles Wilson, the son of a US Naval Officer a Naval Attache to Gibraltar and former resident of Gibraltar, brimmed with nostalgia as he shared his memories of growing up on the Rock in the 1950s with the Chronicle.

In doing so he painted a colourful picture of family life, British and American traditions, The Queen’s visit, and Rocky a macaque who was shipped off to Ohio in December 1956.
It was Mr Wilson’s first return to Gibraltar as he sailed into Port on a cruise ship on Friday morning, despite the levanter cloud that hung over it he still recognised the Rock he left in 1957 at the tender age of seven.

It was through his quest to find out more about Rocky that he got in touch with the Chronicle earlier this year. He had sent articles from a newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, which ran a story on Rocky who was shipped to the Columbus, Ohio Zoo via a US Navy ship.

“We lived at 3 Mediterranean Terrace. As a child of seven, I remember seeing Rocky leave Gibraltar in a wooden cage, almost like King Kong,” he wrote.

“The family watched as Rocky’s crate was hoisted onto a ship by a large crane,” he told the Chronicle.

“That’s the last I remember seeing him.”

Over the years he has often wondered what happened to Rocky so he contacted the Columbus Zoo. The zoo told him: “Records indicate that Rocky arrived at the zoo on Dec. 22, 1956 and lived at the zoo until his passing on Dec. 9, 1962.”

“It looks like he died from Hemorrhagic colitis according to the necropsy results,” Mr Wilson said.

“He is the only Barbary macaque that we have in our records, so I think it is safe to say that he did not have any progeny to tell them of.”

Mr Wilson also recalled his mother wrote a letter in 1957 that described how “Rocky looked so scared inside the cage, and he was leaving freedom to go to the Ohio zoo.”

Life on the Rock for Mr Wilson in the 1950s has some similarities to today as for the young boy daily life often meant close encounters with the monkeys.

“You could hear a monkey run across the top of the roof, and [my sister] would be petrified at night,” he said.

The family’s home was located in the Mediterranean Terrace, overlooking Library Street. “It was built as two houses, but they joined each other, and... the front of the house was up the hill, and then the back of the house had an extra floor below, because it's built on the side,” he said.

“We had a breakfast room off the dining room… painted with wallpaper of monkeys and banana trees, things we referred to as the monkey room.”

Their father served as the naval attaché, often treated as the de facto American consul. Diplomatic responsibilities brought unique glimpses behind the scenes: “We were invited to breakfast on the USS Forrestal…and the Ark Royal, the British aircraft carrier, came in.”

These encounters were interwoven with lessons in etiquette. “My mother was very big on etiquette and being proper,” he said, recalling her meticulous preparations for a royal visit in 1954.

“My parents got an invitation to meet the Queen and have tea… My mother spent two months corresponding with everybody she knew in the States on what she should wear,” he said.

Meeting Queen Elizabeth II left its own indelible mark. He remembered children dressed in “shorts, knee socks, white shirts and blazers, waving little British flags.”

While he has some fond memories of life on the Rock, there were moments of deep sadness.

He recalled how the family’s Spanish maid was tragically killed on the runway. “For some reason, she was halfway across and the pilot… was landing and hit her on the runway.”

He said that his everyday life in Gibraltar brought special moments, such as swimming at Rosia Bay on Christmas Day or attending ‘ferias’ in Spain and even speaking Spanish.

“We played a lot with the Spanish workmen. My sister and I went with my mother to the market, and my mother didn’t speak Spanish at all…,” but for him he said, “It was so simple, Mom, you just open your mouth and it comes out.”

“It was a good place to be a kid, and you had a lot of freedom, and you felt protected.”

Today, Mr Wilson lives in Sarasota in Florida, USA.