This year marks the tenth anniversary of Lorna Swift’s arrival on the Rock and above all else shows that her allegiance and commitment to Gibraltar has not faltered. Today ‘home’ means Gibraltar and not the United Kingdom although she remains as Yorkshire as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Lorna was born and educated in Yorkshire, went to Leeds Library School and spent her gap year in that city, so it comes as no surprise to learn her first appointment as a Chartered Librarian was in that city. Her life demonstrates how unplanned and unexpected events can alter the presumption that she would spend her retirement in Yorkshire. Never did she imagine, instead, this would be on the Rock of Gibraltar, particularly as her first visit was disastrous! Her schooling completed she had to concentrate on what career path to take. At that time the life style of a Librarian was not considered to be very exciting or challenging. A survey concluded that it was 35th in the careers league table: today the growth of the information era means that it has risen to 4th place. Fate intervened and her equivalent of today’s gap year gave her the opportunity to work as a Librarian for one of her father’s old family friends which gave her a wonderful grounding. It quickly became apparent that therein lay her future. Her former headmistress, in a chance meeting years later, told Lorna that her choice of career had been right and had her full approval. Her first appointment within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) was as a civilian attached to the Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC). A decision had earlier been taken to employ civilians to run the Army Library Service, the first of the three services to take such a step. Lorna was based in the Command Library, Headquarters Northern Command York but her remit covered from Hadrian’s Wall to Nottingham and her duties included a multitude of services from recreational library facilities for the military and their families to educational and training material for officers and soldiers professional and state examinations. After 18 months in post she accepted the position of Command Librarian in Headquarters Near East Command Cyprus. It was in Cyprus that she first came under the command of Field Marshal Lord Carver and she subsequently served as his Librarian in the Far East and Southern Command. He continued to be a library borrower as Chief of the Defence Staff and when he eventually stepped down from his high command he still enjoyed and made extensive use of the facilities which the Army Library Service provides more especially at the Prince Consort’s Library Aldershot (Field Marshals never retire!). Lorna was in Cyprus from 1964 to 1967 as their first professional Librarian and had a staff of some 30 under her command some of whom she is still in touch with which is a source of great satisfaction to her. The RAEC were pioneers in the field of distance learning and this was gratefully grasped by officers and men and their families. Indeed their work in this field was identified and used as a role model for the Open University. There was a library service point in each Army camp on the island and books were despatched to the British contingents serving with the UN Force as well as the troops stationed up on Mount Troodos. In 1967, following a promotion, she was posted to Singapore, the Headquarters of Far East Land Forces (FARELF) where by an amazing coincidence she took over from the Librarian she had succeeded in York. This was a dream posting as it covered Nepal, Malaysia, Brunei and Hong Hong. It also provided the opportunity to work along- side the Ghurkhas. The only downside was the announcement soon after her arrival of the withdrawal of British Forces from the Far East but fortunately for Lorna it did not take place during her tour of duty. One of the least onerous of her duties was her appointment as officer commanding the Ghurkha newspaper PARBATE. Without any experience of the world of publishing she became the first woman to hold the appointment much to the initial shock and dismay of the Ghurkha editorial board. In fact it was the most wonderful privilege and Lorna made many good and lasting friends amongst these fine troops whose friendships stayed with her when she later met up with them again at Church Crookham, Hampshire. In the late 1960s free annual flights were not provided for civilian personnel serving overseas and the only way to return to the UK was to either pay for the flight or use influence to obtain an RAF indulgence passage which came at a very low cost to the traveller. After three years in the Eastern Mediterranean followed by two years in the Far East Lorna decided she had been away from mainstream librarianship long enough and sought to return to England. Professionally she needed to go home. An indulgence flight was secured and upon arrival she marched into the Directorate of Army Education in Stanmore to ask for a posting back to England. Luck was with her and a stunned Desk Officer agreed that a position would be found for her in the UK and she returned to Singapore to finish her tour! Lorna’s new post was as Library Advisor to the Chief Education Officer Southern Command in Hounslow a far cry from the tropics but nevertheless a very welcome one. After two years and a great deal of travelling around the UK and endless policy paper writing she was promoted to become the Consultant Librarian to the Director of Army Education working out of Headquarters United Kingdom Land Forces (now Land Command) at Wilton. Her remit changed and she assumed overall command of Army Land Services worldwide which meant wherever British Forces served she had to meet their library and information requirements. It was essential that the military libraries overseas were as good as if not better than the facilities available in the UK. Before long her responsibilities became Triservice — one of the first organisations within the MOD to assume this role. It had long been Lorna’s ambition to introduce Information Technology (IT) into the Army Library Service and an information retrieval service was introduced in support of officers’ education. The system expanded as IT systems developed and has proved to be an enormous success. Concurrently the concept of the library service was extended to include an operational role. Early in 1982 the Director of Army Education summoned Lorna to the office and told her she had to go to Gibraltar from Thursday to Tuesday to inspect the Library provision on the Rock. An added incentive lay in the fact she would be able to go to Morocco for the weekend. She arrived ill-equipped for a really bad bout of Levanter and instead of the lovely spring days that she had anticipated Gibraltar was at its worst — cold, wet and thoroughly depressing. Her military superior on the Rock then dropped the bombshell — he forbade her going to Tangier! “Morocco is out of bounds to all military personnel and as you are under my command I forbid you to go.” Lorna obeyed his order and her visit was not an unmitigated success in more ways than one. On her return to the Directorate she stormed into the General’s office to complain and demanded that “she never be sent to that dreadful place again!” (Imagine his comments when she subsequently phoned him to say that she was moving to the Garrison Library in 1998). A decidedly bad start to her trip did not deter her from carrying out her mission and time and effort was spent looking at the MOD library services to ascertain what improvements could be made. The Army library was located in Bleak House and run by Jimmy Noguerra ably assisted by Edna Toomey. Lorna also visited the RAF library at North Camp and the small Royal Navy one in HMS Rooke. Jimmy was no stranger to Lorna as he had visited the Directorate of Army Education at Eltham and had attended conferences, training courses and most importantly Regimental dinners in the Great Hall of the HQ Mess at Eltham Palace together with senior members of the RAEC and his professional colleagues within the Army Library Service. One of the main objectives of such events was to demonstrate that the library team were members of a larger ‘ family’. Indeed when Jimmy Noguerra retired he was invited to Eltham where he dined out withthe Director, his senior officers and his library colleagues —an experience he never forgot. Lorna travelled the world in her role as the Services Consultant Librarian. The Falklands, Belize, Hong Hong, Cyprus, Germany, Northern Ireland — all points east and west and some north and south. One of her saddest trips was to Hong Kong just before the handover. The library staff had served the RAEC for over 30 years and faced their future with trepidation. Wherever she went Lorna always felt at home because of the wonderful camaraderie and memories. Eventually all good things come to an end and Lorna decided she would resign as she wanted to enter the field of voluntary work. Her letter of resignation was accepted and here is where fate stepped in. Two weeks before she left the Library Service she received a telephone call from the person who was running the MOD Library in Gibraltar. The President of the Garrison Library Committee had asked her to contact Lorna as they needed someone to proffer advice. Mindful of her first visit to the Rock Lorna was not keen but the Librarian whose name had been suggested had already been assigned by her to another task and so she was forced to accept the invitation. This was December 1997 and once again the weather was at its worst — December in Gibraltar can be a very dreary month. The Chief of Staff succeeded in wooing her with the result she accepted the job and ten years on she is still working in the Garrison Library despite her initial appointment being just six months. Today Lorna looks back on her decade running the Garrison Library. It has always provided research facilities but access was limited as it was only open two or three mornings a week since the lending library facility closed in 1981. When she arrived in May 1998 Jon Searle was not only the Secretary of the Garrison Library Committee and a research scholar but he was also a magnificent networker. If he did not know the answer he always knew someone who did and he taught Lorna a great deal. Although she trained as a reference librarian her time at various Headquarters had turned her into an administrator rather than a hands on librarian. In Gibraltar it was all hands-on work which she relished. One important decision was to rebind or repair the rare books in the Gibraltar collection which were in need of attention. and thanks to the generosity of the Gibraltar Heritage Trust and the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society a rolling programme to bind the key stock is in place. There has been increased use of the library by Spanish scholars who come from Seville, Cadiz, Jerez , Algeciras and even further afield. There is no charge for historians and others who come to the library to carry out their research but naturally there is a fee for photocopying. If Lorna is asked to conduct research there is a fee which is commensurate with the standard British Library charges. From time to time television companies use the building but the huge fees reported to be paid are a myth although there is a set charge laid down by the Garrison Library Committee. No books have been knowingly ‘borrowed’ or stolen as all the bookcases are locked and there is a sophisticated alarm system in place. Finances are tight but there is a small revenue flow and the Library is able to keep its head above water. There is a budget to buy books but the majority of Gibraltarian authors very kindly donate a copy of their work on publication. Anyone is free to use the beautiful gardens which are maintained by volunteers and during the summer months many visitors come in, enjoy the flowers and relax.

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