Albert Risso

Albert J. Risso (died before 2008), GMH was a Gibraltarian trade unionist and politician. He was the first president of the Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights (AACR) in Gibraltar.

Career Albert Risso was one of the first political activists in the British territory of Gibraltar. at a very young age, he was one of the campaigners for the involvement of the Gibraltarian civilian population (and especially its working class) in governing the colony. In 1919, he was one of the members of a so-called "deputation of working men" who went to London to meet the Secretary of State for the Colonies and ask for the creation of a representative body that could succeed the Sanitary Commission, an unelected body whose members, usually belonging to the upper class, were nominated by the Governor. The campaign, driven by the trade unions, brought about the creation of the Gibraltar City Council in 1921. Risso stood for election for all AACR candidatures to the City Council and to the Legislative Council first, and the House of Assembly until the 1970s. He was also a member of the Constitutional Conference which drafted the Gibraltar's first constitution.

On 22 February 2005 the Government of Gibraltar announced that a proposed senior citizens building at Waterport in Gibraltar was to be named Albert Risso House following his enormous contribution to public life.

Upon the creation of the Gibraltar Medallion of Honour in 2008, Albert Risso was posthumously awarded the Medallion and therefore was recorded in the Gibraltar Roll of Honour.