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<font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">The Garrison Library of Gibraltar was founded in the year 1793. The library grew to well over 30,000 books and was believed to be the finest English Language library outside England. In its present form the library is primarily a research library. It is no longer associated with the garrison due to its privately run status.</font>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">On the return to Gibraltar of the Historian of the Great Siege, Captain (afterwards Colonel) John Drinkwater, campaigned for a library. His scheme was ignored by his brother-officers though there was clearly a real need. Prior to the building of the library, officers would travel with their private collections, a habit not encouraged by the military baggage masters. Boredom of troops overseas had always been a problem, especially in Gibraltar at that time when there were few opportunities for cultural or recreational activities, no places to travel, indeed, scarcely space to gallop a horse.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">The scheme was submitted to the Governor, General Sir Robert Boyd, and to the Lieut.-Governor, Major-General O'Hara, both of whom so highly approved of it, that the former gave as a donation £100, and the latter £30, which he afterwards liberally increased so as to become the most munificent Patron of the Institution. No time was lost in convening a public meeting which took place on the 27th August, 1793. under the presidency of Colonel Morse the Commanding Royal Engineer. The plan of Captain Drinkwater was unanimously approved; the necessary Fundamental Laws were passed, and a Committee was appointed to carry out the details into effect. So popular was the measure that nearly 500 volumes were immediately presented to the Library by various Officers, particularly Captain George Vansittart (afterwards a lieut. General in the Service) who gave the whole of his books to it.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">A library was established in 1793 and was housed in a building on Main Street. As the library grew in size, a larger building was required and the British Government agreed to fund the construction of this imposing colonial style establishment. The site chosen for the building was originally a garden owned by the Governor. The area in front of the building, which is now referred to as Governor's Parade, also belonged to the Governor and altogether this land had provided enough grass to feed the Governor's horses and cattle.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">Commenced in 1800, construction took 4 years to complete. A new wing was added in 1867 and over the years the surrounding land, which was held in trust by the Library Committee, was leased for the construction of grand houses which can be seen behind the library building.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">There is no need for a restoration program, for it is all here, complete in all its original solid Georgian joinery, with its fine doors and angled reading desks, its sturdy library chairs and green leather armchairs, elegant free-standing book cabinets and splendid cast iron fire buckets. The floors are paved either with stone or Spanish terracotta with cork for the silent reading rooms. Over the years portraits have been given, or commissioned, prints and lithographs have been collected, journals amassed, books given and it has also provided a safe home for relics from the now defunct Calpe Hunt and the Gibraltar Jockey Club. Another item no longer in use is the sand glass which set a uniform standard by which each reader was allowed to 'hog' the Times.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">Gibraltar was the background from which most of the early British travel accounts of North Africa were researched and written. Men such as William Lempriere in the 18th-century or Harry Mclean in the 19th-century.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">In the stately rooms fierce but silent games of bridge were fought out, there was a separate lending library for the less precious books, tea could be taken in the garden with its terracotta paths and tree shaded terraces and at noon after Church drinks were served by a liveried waiter. This service had ceased by 1981. In the evenings it was often used for parties; drinks for the officers from a visiting fleet, a resident foreign consul might use it to a host a national day or for a farewell party. Within the closed world of Gibraltar the Garrison Library was both the Royal Geographical Society and the Travellers Club.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">Even before the new library building was habitable a printing press had been shipped out from England to produce the first issue of the Gibraltar Chronicle on 4th May 1801. The headline of the day was 'Continuation of the Intelligence from Egypt' and four years later it recorded a worldwide scoop in being the first paper to record the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson on 24th October 1805.</font></div>
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