Couceiro (António Rogério Gromicho)

On 1 June 1856 Brigadier António Rogério Gromicho Couceiro took office as civil governor of this district. A month later the first cases appeared of the terrible cholera epidemic that, in four months, killed about ten thousand Madeirans. Gromicho Couceiro was a true Providence for Madeira in the most anguished trials this island has ever endured. A man of rare energy, of intelligent and fruitful initiative, and of prompt and immediate decision at the most critical and awkward moments, he managed as far as possible to ward off the evils that overwhelmed the unfortunate inhabitants of this archipelago. He won the admiration of his contemporaries and a name crowned by so many good works that the fame of the outstanding services he rendered selflessly to Madeira still lives on in tradition today. Justice requires us to recall that Couceiro had a valuable helper, among others, in the illustrious Madeiran Dr António da Luz Pita, then deputy for this island. Being in Lisbon when the epidemic broke out, he obtained substantial relief from the central government, which he himself accompanied to Madeira. Here, as a distinguished physician and a man of great prestige and influence, he rendered his fellow islanders the most notable services, particularly in organising the clinical and hospital work. The history of that calamitous period, which left in popular tradition the memory of the most Dantesque horrors, has still to be written; nor has the tribute due to Couceiro’s memory for the great services he rendered to this island yet been paid. (See Cholera in 1856 and 1910.)

Couceiro was born in Elvas on 13 March 1807 and died in Lisbon, with the rank of field marshal, on 22 June 1862. He graduated in mathematics from the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra), was a professor at the Polytechnic Academy of Porto and was minister of war in 1859.

He also held the post of military commander of Madeira, which he combined with the office of civil governor. He left this island on 3 September 1857, and represented this archipelago in parliament in the legislature of 1858–1859.