Monarch George V Preceded by Francesco Buhagiar Education University of Malta Monarch George V Spouse Maria Francia | Preceded by Gerald Strickland Role Member of Parliament Governor-General David Campbell Name Ugo Mifsud Party Nationalist Party | |
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Governor-General Walter Congreve
John Du Cane Died February 11, 1942, Valletta, Malta Succeeded by Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland | ||
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.
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 Popolare 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 Dr. Enrico Mizzi's PDN, Sir Ugo became co-leader with Dr. 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the PN landslide victory of 1932, when he held the office of Prime Minister up to 1933, when the 1921 Constitution was withdrawn.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.