Perit André Zammit was born in 1930 in Gozo, where his father was a senior civil servant. André experienced the war years in Victoria, where he received his secondary education at the Seminary, transferring to St Aloysius College in Birkirkara in 1943. He sat for his matriculation examinations and entered the Royal University of Malta to follow the course of Architect and Civil Engineer. He was the youngest of his fellow students, graduating in 1952 and then winning a government scholarship to further his studies in London in road building. Further specialisation followed in Milan.
On his return to Malta, he joined the Public Works Department and was detailed to the roads section. He was responsible for the design and execution of the first fly-over project at Blata l-Bajda in the late 1950s and several other major road construction projects.
André lectured at the Royal University of Malta and in later years, he was chairman of the Planning Area Permits Board.
He authored a number of books starting with his memoires and then the history of his family architects and a biography of his maternal uncle, Chief Justice Sir Luigi Camilleri and Our Architects – A Private Archive Unveiled, based on the Collection
He died on 14 May 2020.
Major Sir John Clauson was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He was Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Secretary to Government of the Island of Malta and its Dependencies from 1911 to 1914, and High Commissioner of Cyprus from 1915 until his death.
Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Clifton College, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Clauson was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1885. He graduated BA (Hons) from the University of London in 1887. In 1889, he designed a pontoon which was still in use in the Army at the time of his death. He passed the Staff College, Camberley in 1893, ranking first. He was on the Army Headquarters Staff from 1895 to 1900. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1897.
He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1912 and Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1913 New Year Honours.
His eldest son was Sir Gerard Clauson, Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial Office from 1940 to 1951.
Born in Vittoriosa on the 30 June 1890, Paul Boffa was educated at the Lyceum and at the University of Malta from where he graduated as a Medical Doctor in 1912. During World War I he served with the Royal Medical Corps in Malta, Thessaloniki, and on hospital ships. After the war he set up in private practice in Paola.
Paul Boffa entered politics when Malta was granted self government in 1921 and joined the Labour Party in 1923. He was returned to Parliament under the Amery-Milner Constitution in 1924, 1927 and 1932.
He was elected Leader of the Labour Party in 1927 and immediately began to instil in the workers the need of rightfully equal representation in government in order to have a say in their own affairs. He was in coalition with Lord Strickland's party in government (1927-32). In 1932 Paul Boffa was the only Labour Party candidate elected to the Legislative Assembly until it was dissolved in 1933. He was nominated as a member of the Executive Council from 1936-1939.
During World War II Paul Boffa served with distinction as district Commissioner and ARP Medical Officer in the Cottonera, Paola, Tarxien and Luqa areas.
In the 1945 elections, Dr Boffa was again elected in the Labour Party. Boffa reached the acme of his political career in November 1947 when, he became the first Labour Prime Minister. His administration was instrumental in obtaining recognition of the Maltese language in the law courts and the introduction of compulsory primary education and old-age pensions as well as the granting of the vote to women.
In 1949, following the Labour Party's ultimatum to Britain concerning financial help, the Labour Party split up but Dr. Boffa continued as Prime Minister and later founded and led the Malta Workers' Party (MWP), that lost the 1950 Elections.
Boffa was re-elected in 1951 and in 1953 and joined a coalition government with the Nationalist Party led by George Borg Olivier, assuming the portfolio of Minister of Health and Social Services. The MWP did not contest the 1955 elections and in 1955 he resigned for health reasons.
Honours:
1956 - Knight Bachelor - New Year's Honours List in recognition of distinguished public services.
1914-18 - He was also awarded the 1914-18 Star, the General Service Medal, the Victory Medal, the Coronation Medal and the Defence Medal.
Lord Gerald Strickland was born in Valletta on 24 May 1861, son of naval officer Commander Walter Strickland, and Maria Aloysia Bonici-Mompalao. Strickland was educated at St. Mary's College, Oscat and Trinity College, Cambridge. Upon graduating, he was admitted to Inner Temple in 1887 entitled to practice as a barrister-at-law. He was elected in 1886 to the council of the government of Malta. After the grant of self-government to Malta he formed the Anglo-Maltese Party in 1921 and after a few months, merged it with the Maltese Constitutional Party forming the Constitutional Party under his leadership. Clashes with the local authorities led to the suspension of the Constitution. He died on 22 August 1940.
Byatt was born on the 22nd of March, 1875, in Tottenham, Middlesex to schoolmaster Horace Byatt M.A., of Midhurst, Sussex, and Laura (née Archer). He attended school at Midhurst Grammar School, in Sussex. He was then admitted into Lincoln College, Oxford, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1898. Following this, he worked within the Colonial Service. His service began in Nyasaland (what is now Malawi), where he stayed until 1905, then went to British Somaliland. He was appointed commissioner and commander-in-chief of British Somaliland in 1911, serving until 1914, when he became Colonial Secretary in Gibraltar. From 1914 to 1916 he was lieutenant-governor and Colonial Secretary of Malta. In 1916 he became an administrator in British East Africa, later becoming the first governor of the new British mandate of Tanganyika in 1920. He was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the League of Nations Mandated Territory of Tanganyika from 1920 to 1924. In 1924 he married Olga Margaret Campbell of Argyll, and had three sons with her: Sir Hugh Campbell Byatt (1927–2011), Ronald (Robin) Archer Campbell Byatt (1930–2019), and David Byatt (born 1932). He died on the 8th of April, 1933, in London, aged 58.
Claudio Vincenzo Bonnici graduated in law in 1802. In 1803, he was given the warrant of lawyer. On the 13th of October 1817, a government notice announced that Dr. Claudio Vincenzo Bonnici was to act as a Crown Advocate replacing Mr Marquis Dr Gio Francesco Alessi with a salary of 2500 scudi. In 1818 his salary increased to 3000 scudi. On the 4th of April 1825, he was appointed to sit in the Criminal Court as a Majesty’s Judge – 1834 Criminal Code was dissolved; Judge Claudio Vincenzo Bonnici with other Judges were entrusted with the compilation of the new Civil and Commercial and of the Code of Civil Procedure – 27th of July 1835 was appointed as knight commander and he was knighted by the K.C.M.G – 1st January 1839 presented their resignation; 14th March 1839 died.
Hart worked as Chief Architect in the Edinburgh City Architecture Department in Scotland. When he came to Malta he also visited Gozo and Comino, and several sites within the Islands between the 1950s and 1980s.
Joseph Ellul was a Maltese photographer, born in Cospicua in 1907. He worked as a clerk, and started photography in/ around 1929. Most of his pictures are pre-Second world war and include photographs of events, landscapes, buildings and street photography of Malta and Gozo. The majority of his pictures are portraits, as he had a photographic studio at home where people would make use of his professional photographic services. He continued his photographic activity until the early 1970s.
Rodgers joined the RAF in his late 20s and was a trained photographer, very often doing aerial photography. He also documented his time in Malta in the late 1930s through photography.
Karmenu Gruppetta was a Maltese actor and play-write, born in Sliema in 1922. At 16 years of age he joined the Royal Malta Artillery Association (RMAA) as a soldier in the Royal Engineers (Malta Section). During his acting career he took part in theatre (shows such as Francis Ebejer's 'Hadd fuq il- Bejt'), plays, TV programmes, and also took part in films filmed in Malta such as 'Pulp' (1972). He lead several acting companies and won awards and diplomas for his works. He died in 1997.
Richard Ellis (27 January 1842 – 23 December 1924) was a British-Maltese photographer who was one of the pioneers of photography in Malta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in St. Luke's, East London, he travelled throughout Europe as a circus performer before settling down in Malta at the age of nineteen. Within a few years he had opened a studio in Valletta, and became a renowned photographer. His archive of tens of thousands of photographs still exists, and his work is significant for both its historic value and technical quality.
Ian Colin Lochhead, author of 'Siege of Malta, 1565'.
Matteo Pérez d'Aleccio (1547–1628), Italian painter, specialized in historical, nautical, and spiritual topics during the Mannerist era. He resided in Peru for more than 40 years, from 1588 to 1628, and spent most of that time creating art.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.