Cemitério dos Estrangeiros, Setúbal

Author: Ninna Taylor, Carel Heringa, John Pead, Andrew Shepherd and Edward Godfrey

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Year: 2025

Subject Matter: British in Portugal

Lajes War Cemetery, Terceira

Author: Andrew Shepherd

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Page:

Year: 2025

Subject Matter: British in Portugal

Did you know?

G. & H. Hall Lda. was a British-owned company, believed to have been founded in 1891, which manufactured carbonated drinks in Lisbon. It transferred to the Santa Apolónia area in 1898 taking over a plot north of the railway line and including the disused Fort of Santa Apolónia, which has now been converted into a horticultural garden. The land was formerly part of the Quinta do Manique and the Halls purchased it from the Counts of S. Vicente. It became popularly known as Quinta dos Pirolitos, because of the drinks sold by the Halls.

The Hall family in Lisbon goes back to at least 1864, when two infant children of George Alexander Hall (1832-1917) and Mary Anne Hall (died 1907) were buried in the British cemetery. A Thomas George Hall married Clara Hale at St. George's Church in 1858 and may have been related. George and Mary's son, another George Alexander Hall (1859-1924), who was married to Jane Margaret (1866-1953), appears to have been the original owner of the factory and he later passed on the company to one of his brothers, Henry Malpas Hall (1869-1938). After Henry’s death in 1938, the factory remained in the possession of the widows of George and Henry and of three children of the founder; Violet, George (died 1969), and Cecil (1907-1970). In the 1960s Cecil was still in the drink business as the managing director of CIREL – Conçórcio Industrial de Refrigerantes Portugueses, which made both fizzy drinks and fruit juices, and seems to have been formed as a result of a merger between Halls and other companies. The surname of Hall is still found in Portugal.

Halls produced lemonades, tonic waters and pirolitos. It was customary for young people to go to collect lemons free of charge from the factory after they had had their peel removed for use in the manufacturing process. The pirolitos used the invention of Hiram Codd (1838-1887) who, in 1872, patented a bottle filled under gas pressure, which pushed a glass ball against a rubber washer in the neck, creating a seal for the contents. The bottle had no cork or cap. To take a drink you had to push the glass marble down to release the gas and allow the liquid to escape.

These became known as Codd bottles and were widely used in Britain and Portugal, where the bottles produced in factories in Marinha Grande were sent to drink producers in Aveiro; Barreiro; Estremoz; Espinho; Coimbra; Sesimbra; Marinha Grande: and Lourinhã, to name but a few. However, in the late 1950s they were declared to be a health hazard as the bottle design made it very difficult to clean the bottles that had been returned to the drinks factories. Many of the soft-drink manufacturers closed in the early 1960s as a consequence, despite the fact that they enjoyed considerable protection under the Estado Novo, Coca-Cola not being allowed in Portugal until 1977. Not only did young boys lose their fizzy drinks but they also lost a common source of balls to play the game of marbles, as they had often broken bottles to get the marbles.

The Codd bottle provides one suggested derivation for the origin of the word codswallop (lies, rubbish or nonsense, for the benefit of our Portuguese readers). Wallop was a slang term for beer, thus Codd’s Wallop, or lemonade, was seen as an inferior product to beer. This derivation is widely disputed, but no other more convincing origin has been found. What is clear is that it was popularised in an episode of Hancock’s Half Hour in 1959, although the writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, said that it was commonly used at the time and they did not invent it.

Sources: Several sources were consulted. A special thanks to Pedro Ferreira for the photograph and particular thanks to our member, John Pead, for information about the British Cemetery records, as well as to Bruce Dawson and Edward Godfrey.

The British in Portugal

Born in Riccarton near Kilmarnock in 1822, William Reid arrived in Madeira at the age of 14 with the £5 given him by his father still in his pocket. He was the son of a Scottish farmer and one of twelve children. Like many others, he had been advised to go to Madeira for the sake of his health and had worked his passage to Lisbon and then to Funchal.

His first job was in a bakery but he quickly realised that the wine trade would be profitable and by the age of 25 he owned a small wine exporting company. The positive impact that Madeira had had on his health convinced him that Madeira was an ideal island for those suffering from TB, bronchitis, and other ailments. With a partner, William Wilkinson, Reid developed a property business that let and administered some of the island's quintas that were owned by British merchants or affluent Portuguese.

These “self-catering villas” were let out between October and June, attracting wealthy British people who would often spend months on the island, sometimes taking their servants, and governesses for their children. One client was the Marchioness Camden. She arrived with a companion, Margaret Dewey, who married Reid in 1847. They had twelve children: several died in infancy.

Their success in letting property to visitors led Reid and his wife to plan the development of a hotel. They purchased the Quinta das Fontes and transformed it into the Royal Edinburgh Hotel. This required the permission of the then Duke of Edinburgh, Alfred, second son of Queen Victoria. As a Royal Navy officer, he had often visited Madeira and knew Reid. Subsequently, they established other hotels, including the Santa Clara Hotel and the Miles Carmo Hotel in Funchal, as well as accommodation in the mountain village of Monte and a hotel in St. Anne’s (now Santana) on the north coast.

In 1850 tourism to Madeira was boosted by the lengthy stay of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (nicknamed Sisi). By this time Reid was 28 and had a chain of small hotels. There were very few hotels on the island and his business was a virtual monopoly. In 1881, Reid and his wife bought and moved into the Quinta do Bom Sucesso, which became the Botanical Garden of Madeira in 1960.

Not content with his success he wanted to build a luxury hotel and had identified the perfect site, 50m above the Atlantic, on the west side of the bay, about 3km from the centre of Funchal. This was known as Horse’s Leap (Salto do Cavalo). Unfortunately, there was already a quinta built on the site, owned by Dr. Michael Grabham. Eventually the doctor was persuaded to sell the land and in 1887 Reid began to plan his hotel. He commissioned the architect and Egyptologist, George Somers Clarke, who had designed Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo, and his partner John Thomas Micklethwaite. The hotel was to be surrounded by ten acres of sub-tropical gardens, which required baskets of soil to be carried up the steep hill to create fertile land on the rocks, into which plants, shrubs and trees were planted. The garden is now exceptional, with more than 500 species.  

Reid was unable to celebrate the hotel’s completion. He died in 1888. Two sons, William and Alfred, oversaw the hotel’s construction and, in November 1891, the hotel opened its doors. To help to attract visitors, the sons published a short guidebook on Madeira in the same year. Initially the hotel was known as the New Hotel, later becoming the New Palace Hotel, and then Reid's Palace or just "Reid's". In its time it has attracted many famous visitors, most notably, of course, Winston Churchill.

50 Years Ago

The edition of 4 January contained quite a long article, “A New Outlook – The Plans of the Ministry of Social Affairs” by A. Vicente. After 25 April 1974 the Ministry of Social Affairs was set up to control not only existing health and assistance services but with the aim of unifying and working out social projects that would benefit the whole country and would cover every sector of the population and every social problem.

The article described the three main objectives of these plans:

*The gradual establishment of An Integrated System of Social Security;

*The laying of the foundations of a National Health Service;

*The progressive achievement of an overall policy of Social Action aimed at improving the life of all sectors of the population.

Specific measures were intended to include:

*a compulsory 90-day leave for all working mothers after giving birth to a child, with the state paying their salaries;

*family allowances for every child in the country;

*improvements in the social, economic and legal status of women, so that women would have the same parental rights as men and all other discriminatory laws such as different salaries for the same work would be abolished.*

The edition of 1 February noted the arrival of a new United States Ambassador to Portugal, Ambassador Frank C Carlucci, a career diplomat. Carlucci served in Portugal until February 1978 and served as Secretary of State of Defense from 1987 to 1989 in the administration of President Ronald Reagan. He died in 2018, aged 87. Carlucci’s time in Portugal was dominated by his efforts to assist the pro-democracy political parties to establish the democratic process against the opposition of the well-established Communist Party. He met frequently with the Socialist leader Mário Soares and by August 1975 had persuaded President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to back Portugal’s democratic leadership.

Also in the edition of 1 February, the new British Historical Society of Portugal was mentioned. Readers were asked to note that it was no longer the Portuguese Branch of the Historical Association. The new Society held all the precious records of the former body including (APN hoped) the Sarum Coronation Rite, which Fr. Cowley had discovered in the Évora archives.** All the Society needed were proper premises and more members, particularly of the keener sort. On the front page was an account of the Society’s first expedition, to the Lines of Torres Vedras. Sir Alfred Norris provided an engaging account of the jaunt over the Serra de Serves until the Tagus came into view, to remind members of the small fleet of British gunboats moored in the river to protect the flank of the first Line.

* The writer of the article was Ana Vicente, the daughter of the APN’s editors Luiz Marques and Susan Lowndes Marques. Ana’s daughter, Filipa Lowndes Vicente, recently talked to the Society in both Lisbon and Portugal on “English visitors to Goa (1850-1950)”.

** We have no record of this. Can anybody help?

Members' News

We are saddened to report that our member and long-time resident of Lisbon, Ian Crocker, died in December. For a full obituary, please see here.

In case readers missed a recent rather slimy example of Anglo-Portuguese collaboration, please see this BBC article.

Andrew Shepherd has recently visited two museums that were both almost empty but certainly merit more visitors. The first was the Museu das Comunicações near Cais do Sodré, which has an excellent exhibition of the history of communications in Portugal, from the time messages were delivered on horseback to the present day. As members will know, British companies were among those involved in developing cable, radio and telephone services in Portugal, all of which are well illustrated.

Built in a former sardine cannery, the Museu do Trabalho in Setúbal has three main exhibits: a reconstruction of a sardine cannery from arrival of the fish to the departure of the cans; a reproduction of a grocery store that used to be on the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, showing not only the retail display but the office and storage areas; and a collection of agricultural implements and other rural items made by Michel Giacometti. Those who have visited the Museum of Portuguese Music in Estoril will already be aware of Giacometti's ethnographic work, as he contributed many of the instruments in that museum.

Those who enjoyed the presentation by Eduardo Gomes at our Annual Lunch may like to know that his book, Terra Queimada, can be purchased from Bertrand Livreiros at this link. 

Members are reminded that visits can be made to the library by researchers on Monday afternoons. Casual visitors are also welcome: we have many fascinating books on sale. Appointments should be made here.

The Lisbon Players will be performing a new play by Jonathan Weightman called Waking Thoughts. The play is about the homosexual relationship between William Beckford and Gregório Franchi, who met in Lisbon. It is being performed at the Teatro Ibérico, Rua de Xabregas 54 in Lisbon, at 16.30 starting on 2 April. For more details, please see here. For tickets, please see here.

The English Catholic History Association is organising a free Zoom talk on the topic of Charles II's Portuguese Queen: The Legacy of Catherine of Braganza. It will be held on Tuesday 8th April at 19:30. The Zoom address is:

us06web.zoom.us/j/82185596247?pwd=mxfXU6HLexOz0XujKf41Sg23DqVxam.1

Until 21 July the Gulbenkian's Centro de Arte Moderna has an exhibition enitled Arte Britânica: Ponto de Fuga. There are 74 artists represented. Most are British, including well-known artists such as Henry Moore, David Hockney, Edward Burne-Jones, J.M.W. Turner, and Antony Gormley, but also represented are foreigners who made their home in the UK, including Portuguese such as Paula Rego and Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos. For more information please see here.

Answer to quiz: During the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, all the clocks stopped. The Marquis of Pombal ordered 2000 new ones from London and also encouraged English clockmakers to settle in Lisbon.