Napoleon’s Maltese Surgeon

‘Dr Calcedonio Fenech, who was an activist of the pro-French party, served as advocate of the poor in Valletta law courts during the brief administration by General Vaubois. His family was from Cospicua, and his son Eugene, though he was born in Rabat, Gozo, where he spent his childhood, was to proclaim with pride his Gozitan origin.’

This extract from Richard Spiteri’s Eugene Fenech, Memoires d’un officier de santè maltais dans l’armee francaise (1786-1839) which gives us an account of Fenech’s career. In 1813 Fenech presented his thesis to the faculty of medicine in Paris. ‘Eugene Fenech was probably the most competent Maltese surgeon of his day. He obtained his degree from the Paris Faculty of Medicine by defending a thesis about surgery on the battlefield.’

With the surrender of the French garrison in 1800, the Fenech family chose exile like those hundreds of other Maltese who had supported Republican France. In 1802 Fenech joined the medical staff of the military hospital in Ajaccio, and subsequently other hospitals in Calvi and Bocognono, before being appointed surgeon for region of Gironde. In 1808 he was present at the battle of Rolica. In 1809 he was placed in charge of the military hospital near Valladolid in Spain.

In 1813, as a fully-fledged surgeon in the ranks of the French Fifth Army, Fenech braved the savagery of the War of Nations fought mainly in Saxony and Silesia (modern-day Poland) where Napoleon reeled under the onslaught of Russians, Prussians, and Austro-Hungarians.

In November 1814 Fenech returned to Malta and established a prosperous practice, but in 1822 he departed from Malta to rejoin the French army. In 1836 he settled in Bone, Algeria. In the late 1830s, he witnessed the arrival of hundreds of Maltese in North Africa, all desperate to seek out a living there.

In 1844 Fenech was described by the president of the Società Medica d’Incoraggiamento as one of the doctors who had been of credit to the Maltese medical profession.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.