Gibralter Comcen Closes

Signal station signs off after 140 years – 02 December 2010

With the signal CM1 Desig All – ‘I am closing down on all circuits’ – 140 years of signalling from the Rock came to an end and Gibraltar’s communications centre closed down.

It fell to Gibraltar’s Chief-of-Staff, Col Jim Mitchell, to issue the final signal, and AB Luke Gough – the youngest member of the five-strong RN team – to transmit it around the globe.

The comms centre traces its routes back to 1870 when the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company laid a submarine cable to the Rock and beyond. That established a permanent link with the mother country… And the Admiralty quickly utilised that link, sending communications specialists to Gib to man the new centre.

By WW1 cable was complemented by wireless and ‘aerial farms’ sprouted on the upper Rock while a formal Naval Communications Centre was established in Admiralty Tunnel beneath the mountain.
A generation later and another global conflagration saw Gibraltar become the eye of the Mediterranean hurricane for much of the war. It also became ‘tri-Service’ (before the phrase was in common usage) as RN, RAF and Army personnel manned circuits round the clock to deal with operations in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean.

That joint nature of the base (reflected in the Joint Operational Communications Centre title) persisted post-war. In the new world order, Gibraltar maintained its strategic position as the gateway to the Med. At the peak of operations 150 servicemen and women served at Commcen Gibraltar, as it had become known.

Technology and automation saw personnel numbers tail off, such that by 2008 it had relocated to the Tower, the headquarters of British Forces in Gib.

Two years later, with a team of just five RN comms staff operating it, the decision was taken to close down the centre and relocate to Faslane.
Aside from an historic final signal, the rum barrel was hauled out to mark the centre’s passing with former Officer in Charge Lt Cdr Geoff Alexander raising a toast to communicators past and present.

“From submarine telegraph, through wireless and radio to computer-controlled automated digital systems, Royal Naval communications staff have maintained a constant watch,” said Col Mitchell.

“They have provided the Admiralty, Flag Officers and commanders with the highest standard of military communications. We salute the passing of the Communications Centre, Gibraltar.”

Thought you would all like to see another nail going the coffin ——————Where will it end, Cut Cut Cut we will soon have nothing to cut!

Nobelius of Purbrook