Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
| Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Deputy Prime Minister of Spain | |
|
In office 23 September 1976 – 26 February 1981 |
|
| Prime Minister | Adolfo Suárez |
| Preceded by | Fernando de Santiago y Díaz de Mendívil |
| Succeeded by | Rodolfo Martín Villa |
| Minister of Defence | |
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In office 5 July 1977 – 6 April 1979 |
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| Prime Minister | Adolfo Suárez |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado April 30, 1912 Madrid, Spain |
| Died | December 15, 1995 (aged 83) Torremocha del Campo, Spain |
| Resting place | Villaviciosa de Odón cemetery |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouse(s) | Carmen Blasco |
| Children | Four |
| Profession | Military |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Awards | Legion of Merit, |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Spain |
| Service/branch | Army |
| Rank | Lieutenant General/Captain-General Honorary |
| Battles/wars | Spanish Civil War |
Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado (April 30, 1912 – December 15, 1995) was a Spanish Army General, 1st Marquis of Gutierrez Mellado, Honorary Captain General, First Vice-President of the Government for Defense Affairs, 1st Minister of Defense in Spain.
Offspring of an ancient Madrilenian bourgeois family, his parents died when he was a little child. However, his uncle, Saturnino Calleja, a well known publisher, paid for his education at the Royal College of San Anton in Madrid, which was an elite boarding school at the time. There, in response to his family’s solidarity and revealing for the first time his future strength of spirit and responsibility, graduated with an excellent academic degree (currently in safe keeping at Cardinal Cisneros High School).
His wish to become an Artillery officer was shattered by the military reforms of the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in 1927, which forced him to study at the General Military Academy of Zaragoza, directed by General Francisco Franco, to obtain his qualifications.
Five months after the proclamation of the Spanish Second Republic he was promoted to second lieutenant and later finished his military education at the Academy of Artillery and Engineers of Segovia, where he graduated as first lieutenant in July 1933, having achieved top grades in his class.
His first appointment was the Horse Artillery Regiment, based at the so-called Canton of Campamento, an isolated group of barracks seven kilometers west of Madrid. In 1935 he joined Falange Española de las JONS, an extreme right wing political party, and on the dawn of July 20, 1936 he took arms with his unit in rebellion against the Frente Popular Government, being very active and combatant during their rebellion.
After ten hours of fighting, the coup was controlled by the republican militia. Lieutenant Gutierrez Mellado escaped by walking to the nearby village of Villaviciosa de Odón, frequented by his family during their summer holidays, and later returned to Madrid in early August. Republican authorities indicted him for being involved in the July rebellion and he was jailed at his old school of San Anton, being fortunate enough not to have been included in the lethal lists that cost the lives of many other officers.
In February 1937, a jury declared him not guilty on the basis of his assertion, which was corroborated by two witnesses, that he was ill at Villaviciosa de Odón around the time of mid July and so was not able to take part in the coup d´etat. However, simultaneous police inquires unveiled his active intervention in it, what induced him to take shelter at an embassy.
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