A large audience listened attentively to Dr. Paul Pisani talk about Sir Harry Luke – a little known personality with strong connections to Gozo.

This was the first in the 2014-2015 lecture series organised by Wirt Ghawdex, a series of annual free public lectures held at the Santa Cecilia Mediaeval chapel in Ghajnsielem.

Dr. Pisani interwove the details of the tenure of this Lieutenant-Governor of Malta – between 1930 and 1938 – with the turbulent times of the day which included the suspension of the Constitution, the language question, great local political turmoil and the looming prospects of a world war.

Luke was genuinely interested in the antiquities of Gozo, various instances of his personal intervention in favour of Gozo’s heritage were also highlighted during the lecture.

Sir Luke spent as much time as he could in Gozo and personally spurred the publication of a proper guidebook of Gozo in English and also the translation of De Soldanis’ manuscript history of Gozo from Italian into Maltese to make it more accessible to the locals.

The lecture proved to be a most interesting one with much of it being new information to the majority of the audience.

Photos: Charles Spiteri

Permalink: Dr Paul Pisani talks about Sir Harry Luke’s strong connections to Gozo