Biography: Joseph Edward Debono
Born on May 1, 1903, died on August 18, 1974
Professor of Medicine
Joseph Edward, the son of Prof. Francesco Debono, and Carmela née Caruana
was born in Valletta on 1 May 1903.
He studied at the Lyceum and the RUM qualifying B.Sc. (1921) and MD (1925). He continued his postgraduate studies in the UK, qualifying MRCS, LRCP (1926), and MRCP (1935).
In 1936 Debono was appointed professor of pharmacology and materia medica and therapeutics at the RUM, a post he kept until he was appointed to the chair of medicine (1946). He retired in 1963. He was the first Maltese doctor to be elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (1948).
Debono was a member of the Malta branch of the British Medical Association of which he was several times elected president (1943-52). He was made commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1956.
In 1968 Debono was awarded the gold medal by the Confederation of Civic Councils of Malta.
Between 1927 and 1964, Joseph Edward Debono published several studies about the treatments of Brucellosis, diarrhoea, and the Kala-Azar, and his biography is published in the book Three Medical Biographies by Joseph Edward Debono in 1984.
He died on 18 August, 1974.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.