Jurist
Born in Valletta to Sir Paolo and Marianna née Xuereb, and direct descendent of artist Filippo Dingli (and Paolina Agius), Dingli studied at the Seminary and the UM where he graduated LLD at the age of 19. For six years he travelled in Europe attending the universities of Rome, Bologna, Bonn, Heidelberg, the Sorbonne, and Oxford, improving his knowledge of law and languages. He returned to Malta in 1842 to practise his legal profession. An accomplished linguist, Italian and English were naturally his best languages, but he was fluent in French, German, and Spanish. His Latin and Greek were first-class and his knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic was not negligible.
In 1849 a new constitution was granted to Malta and Dingli was elected in the council of government as the Gozo representative. Together with Henry Lushington, the secretary to government, he drafted the rules for the conduct of the council’s meetings. He was considered as the most influential member and his opinion always prevailed. In 1851 Dr Adrian Dingli was appointed member of the Board of Commissioners of Charity.
In 1854, on the elevation to the Bench of Dr Antonio Micallef, Dingli was appointed crown advocate and immediately braced himself to carry out the modernisation of Maltese laws. In 1856, when he was about to start this great task which he voluntarily set himself to perform, he was created companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. By 1873 the legal system of Malta was completely reformed and fully in line with the most modern codes of the day.
Dingli was entrusted by Governor Sir Gaspard Le Marchant with the negotiations with the imperial government in connection with the enlargement of the Grand Harbour by deepening that harbour towards Marsa, as well as for the transfer of the civil property in the French creek to the admiralty. In the council of government, he was entrusted with piloting the laws and the votes of money necessary for the construction of the Valletta market, the opera house, and the lunatic asylum. He also suggested the most feasible methods for obtaining water in the islands. For his services in those directions, Dingli received a higher honour - companionship of the Order of the Bath, he being the first Maltese to attain to that distinction. This was followed in 1860 by his elevation to knight commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.
Dingli, who had influential friends at Rome and knew well Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, the cardinal secretary of state, was instrumental in the creation of a separate bishopric for Gozo.
In 1863 Dingli negotiated with Count Cavour a treaty of extradition between Malta and the newly-created kingdom of Italy. On his return to Malta, he drew up the treaty and the requisite ordinance to regulate all cases of extradition between Malta and Italy. The favourable opinion which Dingli had obtained in the foreign and colonial offices was strengthened in June 1878 when, on the British occupation of Cyprus, he was appointed legal advisor to the new commissioner, Viscount Wolseley. There he had to lay the foundations to a new legal and judicial system. In 1880 Sir Adrian Dingli was selected by the imperial government to proceed to Tunis on a special mission and form part of a commission of arbitration, composed of himself as president, a French judge, and an Italian judge to settle a question arising out of certain claims on the bey of Tunis by some foreign creditors.
On 2 November 1880, Sir Antonio Micallef tendered his resignation as president of the court of appeal. Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the secretary for the colonies, offered the post to Dingli who was given the title of ‘chief justice’ in recognition of his noteworthy services to the government. The new post gave him precedence over all the members of the executive council and the council of government. A year later his salary was raised to £1,000 per annum.
In spite of his manifold duties as a member of the Bench, Sir Adrian Dingli accepted the post of vice-president of the council of government. For over 30 years he had been a member of the council of government, first as the representative of Gozo and later on in his official capacity of crown advocate. As vice-president of the council, he earned universal acclaim for the exemplary manner in which he performed his duties. In 1894, at the age of 77, Sir Adrian Dingli asked for leave to retire, after over 50 years of hard work as a barrister, as crown advocate, and finally as chief justice.
In addition to his legal activities, his greatest intellectual interests were history and philosophy. He knew Dante by heart and could quote long passages from Shakespeare and Milton. He was also an admirer of the 18th-century English portrait painters. In music, to which he was devoted, he particularly liked Donizetti and Verdi.
Dingli died at his home, deeply regretted by all classes of the people.
He was married twice. In 1854 he had married Catherine Mamo (died in 1857) and in 1879 Amy Mildred Mary Charlton of Northumberland. His only son, Adrian, was also a barrister and a major.
A monument to his memory in the Mall Gardens in Floriana was unveiled in April 1907 by King Edward VII who, in his speech, paid the highest compliments to the great and talented jurist who had done so much for the welfare of the Maltese. In 2003 the Central Bank of Malta issued a commemorative coin in his honour.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.