Tito Mesod Benady MBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, is a Gibraltarian

Gibraltarian people

The Gibraltarians are a cultural group native to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterranean sea.- Origins :...

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 of Sephardic Jewish descent. He currently lives in Grendon in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Benady was involved in local politics during the seventies; he contested the 1976 election, as an independent, and in the 1980 election, as a candidate of the Party for the Autonomy of Gibraltar

Party for the Autonomy of Gibraltar

The Party for the Autonomy of Gibraltar was a minority right-wing political party in Gibraltar founded on 7 September 1977. It was led by Joseph Triay and asked for a rapprochement with Spain. It contended the 1980 election, without success....

, led by Joseph Triay

Joseph Triay

Joseph Emmanuel Triay is a Gibraltarian lawyer, best know by having been one of the promoters of the Doves group in the 1960s. Triay suffered an attack to his home and office shortly after the publication of a letter advocating a political settlement with Spain...

; he defended positions of rapprochement with Spain. In neither election was he successful.

Benady has specialised in the local and military history of Gibraltar

History of Gibraltar

The history of Gibraltar portrays how The Rock gained an importance and a reputation far exceeding its size, influencing and shaping the people who came to reside here over the centuries.-Prehistoric:...

 and has also written about:

• Sephardic Jews in general;
• the Jewish communities in Gibraltar
  History of the Jews in Gibraltar
  There has been a Jewish presence in Gibraltar for more than 650 years. There have been periods of persecution, but for the most part the Jews of Gibraltar have prospered and been one of the largest religious minorities in the city, where they have made contributions to the culture, defence, and...
  
  ,
• Malta
  Malta
  Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
  
  
• Minorca
  Minorca
  Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
  
  ; and
• The Royal Navy
  Royal Navy
  The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
  
  .

In 2000 he was awarded an MBE after a proposal by the Government of Gibraltar for his services to local history

Local history

Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context and it often concentrates on the local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history...

. In 1993 he founded a history journal published by the Gibraltar Heritage Trust. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

, and also one of the board members of the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society

Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society

The Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society is a London-based, British organisation dedicated to preserving the historical sites and monuments of Gibraltar.-Aims:According to its website, the FOGH Society aims to:-Activities:...

. Benady also runs the editorial Gibraltar Books Ltd., especialised in books about Gibraltar.

Works

• The Settlement of Jews in Gibraltar, 1704 -1783, Transactions, Jewish Historical Society of England
  Jewish Historical Society of England
  The Jewish Historical Society of England was founded in 1893 by several Anglo-Jewish scholars, including Lucien Wolf, who became the society's first president. Early president of the JHSE included Hermann Adler, Joseph Jacobs, Frederick David Mocatta, and Isidore Spielmann...
  
   26 (1979)
• The Gibraltar police, 1830-1980 (Mediterranean Sun, 1980)
• The Jewish Community of Gibraltar, in Western Sephardim (Gibraltar Books, 1989)
• Guide to the Gibraltar Museum, ISBN 0-948466-10-3 (Ashford, Buchan & Enright, 1989)
• The Royal Navy at Gibraltar, ISBN 0-907771-49-1 (Maritime Press, Liskeard, 1992)
• Los menorquines en Gibraltar in Revista de Menorca (1992)
• Grendon in Northamptonshire, with Eileen Wilmin, ISBN 0-948466-34-0 (Gibraltar Books, 1994)
• The Streets of Gibraltar, ISBN 0-948466-37-5 (Gibraltar Books, 1996)
• The Convent at Gibraltar in Journal of the Society of Army Historical Research 77 (Summer 1999)
• Spaniards in Gibraltar in Gibtel Gibraltar Heritage Journal No 7, ISBN 0-9524808-5-9 (2000)
• The Settee Cut: Mediterranean Passes issued at Gibraltar in The Mariner’s Mirror 87:3 (August 2001)
• Genoese in Gibraltar in Gibtel Gibraltar Heritage Journal No 8, ISBN 0-9524808-6-7 (2001)
• The Royal Navy at Gibraltar Since 1900, ISBN 978-1904459040 (Maritime Books, 2004)
• The Royal Gibraltar Police, with Cecilia Baldachino (Gibraltar Books, 2005)
• Trade and Contraband in Gibraltar in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, Anglo-Saxons in the Mediterranean (Malta University Press 2007)

External links

• Short biography of Tito Benady as speaker in the session Gibraltar Privateers 1793 to 1814, in the 5th International Congress of Maritime History 23 June 2008 - 27 June 2008