Malta has recently lost one of the best ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons that practised at St Luke’s Hospital and Craig Hospital in Gozo.

After graduating locally as a medical doctor in 1964, he went to the UK and obtained the valued admission to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1970.

Back in Malta, he was appointed as an ENT surgeon practising both at St Luke’s and Craig Hospital.

His gentle character came to the fore whenever he had to impart news of serious illness to his patients because his particular way of explanation allayed many of their fears. As an anaesthetist, I admired the way he operated in his chosen speciality.

As a Royal University of Malta lecturer, he excelled in passing on his vast knowledge of the subject to the student. He published an excellent article dealing with para pharyngeal chordoma in the St Luke’s Gazette Vol 1X Number 2.

In 1984, he was appointed head of the ENT specialty – a post he kept until his retirement in 2001.

To his gentle wife and family, I join in grieving for the loss of this eminent Maltese surgeon endowed with a gift of a gentle and kind character.