CARMELO MIFSUD BONNICI
Carmelo was born in Bormla in 1897 and enrolled at the University of Malta to study law. He first came to prominence as a student when he actively campaigned for students’ rights as President of the Comitato Permanente Universitario. Just a few weeks before the Sette Giugno, he protested as a student together with other students against the planned change to their university degree – lawyers were to lose the right to use the word ‘dottore’.
During the ensuing student strike, the Anglophile Francesco Azzopardi was pelted with eggs. Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, along with Paolo Borg Olivier, Eduardo Critien and Rosario Farrugia Randon, were put on trial and declared innocent to great cheers from the students. He graduated as a lawyer in 1922.
In the 1920s and 30s, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici ran in the elections on the Nationalist Party ticket. He served four legislative terms and was twice appointed Minister of Finance and Police. His lasting legacies included the introduction of a contributory window and orphan pension for government employees and the construction of workers’ housing in the villages around Grand Harbour. At the end of his political career, he was appointed a university professor at the Faculty of Law.
Two strokes took a heavy toll on his health and he could hardly speak. He dictated legal notes to his two young sons on topics such as criminal intent and complicity. Illness haunted him until his final years when he died in 1948 at the age of 51. His legacy is survived by his sons Giuseppe and Ugo, who were Chief Justice and President of the Maltese Islands respectively.
References:
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/inspirational-forbear-carm-mifsud-bonnici.687835
https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/52405/1/Missieri_il_Gross_2018.pdf
