Appreciation: Dr Sylvia M. Haslam
An international authority on rivers and a keen botanist, she simply loved Malta
Dr Haslam is an international authority on rivers and has published several books and papers on a wide range of their aspects. She held research posts in international organisations and at the University of Cambridge from where she earned a Doctor of Science degree.
Her connection to Malta started in the 1960s when she lectured biology at the Malta University’s Evans Building. She simply loved Malta, and in the 1970s she came back and took up residence in Swieqi. A keen botanist, she realised that Malta needed a recent flora catalogue since the last Descriptive flora of our islands by Dr John Borg was published in 1927. Thorough research and field work in our countryside resulted in the publication by Malta University Press in 1977of A Flora of the Maltese Islands with Sylvia as lead author, together with P.D. Sell and P.A. Wolseley, with contributions by Prof. H. Micallef, M. Rix and the undersigned.
Sylvia was a visiting lecturer in the University of Malta’s Institute of Agriculture. She also started and ran a Brownie section of Girl Guides in Swieqi until her departure to the UK in the mid-2000s.
On a personal note, our paths crossed when I attended one of her field trips in Buskett in 1962. Later she was my mentor when I was studying Amenity Horticulture at Cambridge University Botanic Garden and at the Essex Institute of Agriculture, an institution of the University of Essex.
Noting the expansion of built-up areas threatening Malta’s valleys, in 1986 Sylvia roped me in to co-author with her the book The River Valleys of the Maltese Islands. Environment and Human Impact, which saw us scouring on foot all valleys in Malta, Gozo and Camino for several years. The book was published in 1998 by the Islands and Small States Institute of the Foundation for International studies, Malta, in collaboration with CIHEAM, Bari, Italy.
She co-authored with the undersigned the series Let’s go to ... work study pamphlets, covering particular areas of Malta’s countryside, valleys, environmental topics and agriculture.
Returning to the UK, she continued researching and publishing her works on Plants of the River and a series of seven paperbacks under the theme River Friend – To Discover – To Assess – To Conserve and To Save, right up to just a year before she died.
I appeal to any Maltese students who benefitted from her knowledge, which she unselfishly shared, to join us in passing on our sincere sympathy to her brother and family.
May she rest in peace of the Lord. Amen.