Bencini, Alfred, 1917-1991

Birth: 23rd March 1917 in Attard, Belt, Valletta (Malta)
Died: 6th October 1991 in Pieta, Tal-Pieta (Malta)

When Mintoff became prime minister in June 1971, De Gray was given two options – face an inquiry or retire on pension. De Gray opted for the latter.

After De Gray’s resignation, Alfred Bencini was appointed commissioner.

Affie Bencini, although handpicked by Mintoff himself some ten days after Labour came to power in 1971 to replace De Gray at the very top echelon of the Police Force, stood up and tall against any external interference and political bullying coming from a political party in power – be it forthcoming from Mintoff himself or any other who tried to make use of the Police Force to further their own ends.
To this effect, relationship with Joe Camilleri, Mintoff’s personal Secretary (and friend) turned sour, to the point that both were summoned at Mintoff’s Office at Aragon (the OPM was still Auberge d’Aragon at the time) to square out the differences and bury the hatchet. The meeting ended with a handshake but the situation between the two remained bitter as Bencini was adamant to stamp out any political interference in the Police Force.
Sometime later Affie Bencini removed an Inspector from the post of Adjutant
There followed an immediate counter-order from Mintoff to leave everything as is, at a point when everyone within the Force had come to know about it. Bencini (rightly) felt that police officers could not continue looking up to him with the same respect and discipline as before and pointed this out to Mintoff.
This led to Bencini’s premature end from his post as Commissioner of Police. In August 72 Affie Bencini went out on protest leave and in January 1973 he retired on pension.