Isola was born in Gibraltar in 1929, and was educated at
Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit independent school in
Lancashire, and
Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read law. Isola had an early political success in an election to the
Gibraltar Legislative Council in 1956, when ten candidates contested seven seats. The winners were
Joshua Hassan,
Abraham Serfaty, J. E. Alcantara, and
Albert Risso, all of the
Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights, one
Commonwealth Party candidate,
Joseph Triay, and two
Independents, Isola and
Solomon Seruya. He remained in the
House of Assembly until 1983, and twice served as Leader of the Opposition, first as an Independent, and later as leader of the DPBG. In 1963 and 1964, he went to the United Nations together with
Chief Minister Sir Joshua Hassan to oppose Spain's attempt to
obtain sovereignty over Gibraltar using
decolonisation as an argument to achieve its ends. Both leaders returned to a large public welcome. In 1964 Isola defended free association with the UK, which had been unanimously endorsed by the whole legislature as the constitutional formula for decolonisation, which was expected to be achieved by no later than 1969. In 1965, at the height of the Spain's offensive at the
United Nations, and as Leader of the Opposition, Isola decided to enter into a coalition Government, serving as Deputy Chief Minister, with Joshua Hassan going on as Chief Minister. He was one of the members of the Constitutional Conference chaired by
Lord Shepherd in 1968 which drafted the
Gibraltar Constitution of 1969. The DPBG disintegrated after it had failed to win any seats in the
1984 elections, when Isola even lost his own seat. He then retired from politics to concentrate on his substantial legal practice, heading the legal firm of Isola & Isola (now called Isolas). He was also a member of the constitutional advisory committee. ==Honours==