Grandfather-of-twenty Solomon Levy has been made Mayor of Gibraltar.

Mr Levy, who has written for the JC, is believed to be the first non-political candidate to receive the accolade. “I adore Gibraltar, and to me this is the greatest honour I could ever get,” Mr Levy, 71, tells People. “I intend to put Gibraltar on the map as much as possible.” He is the third Jew to be Mayor of Gibraltar. The first was his uncle, the late Sir Joshua Hassan.

Born in Gibraltar, Mr Levy has been working as an estate agent since 1960. “The word ‘retire’ does not exist in my vocabulary,” he says.

Former president of the Jewish community in Gibraltar, he takes up the mayoral post on August 1.