Ugo Pasquale Mifsud

Ugo Mifsud
Monument to Ugo Mifsud at The Mall in Floriana
3rd Prime Minister of Malta
In office 21 June 1932 – 2 November 1933
Monarch	George V
Governor-General	David Campbell
Preceded by	Gerald Strickland
Succeeded by	Position Abolished
In office 22 September 1924 – 1 August 1927
Monarch	George V
Governor-General	Walter Congreve John Du Cane
Preceded by	Francesco Buhagiar
Succeeded by	Gerald Strickland
Personal details
Born	12 September 1889 Valletta, Malta
Died	11 February 1942 (aged 52) Villa Francia, Lija, Malta
Political party	Nationalist Party
Spouse(s)	Maria Francia

Sir Ugo Pasquale Mifsud (12 September 1889 – 11 February 1942) was the 3rd Prime Minister of Malta. He held office from 1924 to 1927 and from 1932 to 1933. He was a member of the Nationalist Party and the Maltese Italian community.

Biography

Mifsud was born in Valletta on 12 September 1889, the son of Judge Gio Batta Mifsud and Philomena Marianna Muscat. He pursued his studies at the Lyceum and at the Royal University of Malta from where he graduated as a lawyer in 1910. During his career at the bar, he contributed papers on international law to leading legal journals, including the London International Law Notes. He was appointed a member of the International Law Association, set up in Brussels, and took an active part in the bi-annual conferences which discussed problems related to international law.

In 1928, he presided over the aerial and radio law committee at a conference in Warsaw; and in 1934 he presided the Trade Marks Committee at a conference in Budapest. At a conference held in Oxford in 1932, he eas elected member of the executive committee and vice president. In 1928, he represented Malta at a conference convened in Canada by the Empire Parliamentary Association. Mifsud was knighted in 1927.

Sir Ugo was elected Secretary of the initial sittings of the National Assembly after Sir Filippo Sciberras had rallied the Assembly to draft a Constitution for submission to the British Government. In 1921, under the Amery-Milner Constitution, Sir Ugo successfully contested the elections as a candidate of the Unione Politica Maltese (UPM) for the Legislative Assembly. In 1924 Sir Ugo became the youngest Prime Minister in the British Empire.

After the merger in 1926 between the UPM and Enrico Mizzi's PDN, Sir Ugo became co-leader with Mizzi of the newly formed Partito Nazionalista (PN). He was re-elected in 1927 and again in the PN landslide victory of 1932, when he held the office of Prime Minister up to 1933, when the 1921 Constitution was withdrawn. In 1932 he formed part of a government delegation to London which submitted to the secretary of state for the colonies, Sir Philip Cunliffe Lister, a Memorandum with a formal request for Malta to be placed under the Dominium Office as an Independent Member of the Commonwealth.

Sir Ugo held several portfolios: Minister of Finance (1924–26), Minister of Justice (1926–27, 1932–33), Minister for Industry and Commerce (1921–24, 1932–33), Minister for Posts (1921–22, 1923–24), Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries (1921–22, 1923–24).

In 1939 Sir Ugo Mifsud was elected Member of the Council of Government. On 9 February 1942 as the Council was debating, as a matter of urgency, the British Government's intention to deport several Maltese citizens, Sir Ugo suffered a heart attack as he was delivering a speech against the government's intention. Two days later he died. He is buried at the Lija cemetery.

Sir Ugo Mifsud was married to Maria Beatrice ("Blanche") Francia in 1928. On the 21st anniversary of his death a marble monument at Floriana was erected to his memory.^[1]

See also

• Prime Minister of Malta
• List of Prime Ministers of Malta
• Italia irredenta

References