Ex-mayor tells of coup in Spain

At 6.23pm, on February 23, 1981, hundreds of military police armed with submachine guns stormed the Spanish parliament in Madrid.

Lieutenant-colonel of the Guardia Civil Antonio Tejero ordered the country’s lawmakers to lie down on the floor – the fledgling democracy was in peril and the state was in lockdown.

Meanwhile, some 220 miles away in Valencia, captain general Jaime Milans del Bosch ordered 50 tanks out onto the streets and deployed 2,000 soldiers, occupying the town hall and courts.

Among the chaos was former Hereford mayor Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes, who was at the time living in the Valencian town of Altea.

“My first inkling was when I went past the Guardia Civil office on the way to work at the restaurant and I saw them making a lot of noise,” she said.

“They were drinking bottles of whisky, they all had large guns. I felt unnerved.

“I thought, if it was somebody’s birthday or anniversary, they would not have their guns.”

It was not until the around 11pm when the local Guardia Civil chief’s driver entered the restaurant and demanded that it should shut for the night.

“Every table was booked, we were full and he said ‘get these people out, what do they think they are doing?’

“He was very rude, he circled through the tables with his gun. Everybody was nervous.

“Everyone must leave, he said. No more than four in a car.

“Tell them not to loiter on street corners or they will be arrested.

“And you, go home,” he said.

Marcelle did not know what was happening, was there an accident she thought, has somebody been killed?

She decided to drive to Benidorm, some six miles away, to find out.

“It was so eerie, the city was deserted but all the lights were on.

“The discotheques were open but there was nobody in them, just lights flashing.”

When she got home later that night, all her Spanish neighbours were waiting.

“They were asking if I knew anything, as if I knew anything more than them.

“I said come over to my house, we made some coffee, I was one of the few with a phone and so I was a bit of a focal point in the town.

“The street was called Calle del Angel and they used to call me the angel that lived on the corner.

“I’ll never forget it. We couldn’t phone anywhere.

“We put the telly on there was nothing – turned the radio on, nothing

“That’s when I really got nervous.

She told her neighbours there was nothing she could do.

“I suggest you all go home lock your doors and wait till the morning,” she said.

At 1.14am, Spanish King Juan Carlos made a television broadcast and called on the army to take all necessary measures to crush the revolt.

The coup had failed.