Joe Gingell calls on public to help piece together Gib’s evacuation history

Every Friday for the next few months Joe Gingell will be calling out to the public through this newspaper to put names to the faces of evacuees.

For over 12 years Mr Gingell has researched the evacuation era, gathered more than 2,000 images, and has tried to put names to the people in the photos.

He has spent years trying to match those in the photos with their names and has interviewed families to find out their stories.

Mr Gingell has raised around £70,000 for charity through the sale of three books detailing Gibraltar’s evacuation history.

Over the next few months the Chronicle will be publishing some 77 photos in the hopes that readers can spot their loved ones in these images and help Mr Gingell complete his archive.

For Mr Gingell, piecing together Gibraltar’s history is a heartfelt a tribute to his late daughter.

He began this project after the passing of his daughter Michelle who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Mr Gingell remembered how he was in London with Michelle where she had the idea for him to write his own books on the evacuation.

It took him six years to find all the information for the first book and he now has a wealth of information from families who were evacuated to London, Madeira and Jamaica.

With each picture sourced from archives, Mr Gingell has spent years trying to match those in the photo with their names, while also interviewing families to find out their stories.

During the launch of his most recent book ‘The War Came Home’ he described how the thousands of names he has jotted down in his research and how meaningful the books are for the families of evacuees.

The series ‘Putting names to faces’ includes photos from Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Madeira and London, with some names already identified and many others in need of input.

The series begins today with photos of outings and a netball team in the Features section.