Prime Minister
Ugo Pasquale was born in Valletta, the son of Gio Batta Mifsud and Marianna née Muscat. He pursued his studies at the Lyceum and the University of Malta from where he graduated LLD in 1910.
He had a very successful career at the Bar. He contributed papers on international law to leading legal journals, including the London International Law Notes. He was appointed member of the International Law Association, set up in Brussels, and took an active part in the biannual conferences which discussed problems related to international law.
In 1928 he presided over the aerial and radio law committee at a conference in Warsaw, and in 1934 he chaired the Trade Marks Committee at a conference in Budapest. At a conference, held in Oxford in 1932, he was elected member of the executive committee and vice-president. In 1928 he represented Malta at a conference convened in Canada by the Empire Parliamentary Association. Mifsud was knighted in 1927.
Sir Ugo was elected secretary of the initial sittings of the National Assembly after Sir Filippo Sceberras had rallied the Assembly to draft a Constitution for submission to the British Government.
In 1921, under the Amery-Milner Constitution, Sir Ugo successfully contested the elections as candidate of the UPM for the Legislative Assembly and was elected with 567 (fcv) votes from the first district. In 1924 Sir Ugo was elected with 388 votes and became the youngest prime minister in the British Empire.
After the merger in 1926 between the UPM and Dr Enrico Mizzi’s PDN, Sir Ugo became co-leader with Dr Mizzi of the newly-formed PN.
He was re-elected in 1927 (834 votes) and again in the PN landslide victory of 1932, (with 1,013 votes), when he held the office of prime minister up to 1933, when the 1921 Constitution was withdrawn.
In 1932 he formed part of a government delegation to London which submitted to the secretary of state for the colonies, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, a memorandum with a formal request for Malta to be placed under the Dominion Office as an independent member of the Commonwealth.
Sir Ugo held several portfolios: minister of finance (1924-1926), minister for justice (1926-1927, 1932-1933), minister for industry and commerce (1921-1924, 1932-1933), minister for posts (1921-1922, 1923-1924), minister for agriculture and fisheries (1921-1922, 1923-1924).
In 1939 Sir Ugo was elected member of the Council of Government (with 2,045 votes). On 9 February 1942, as the Council was debating, as a matter of urgency, the British Government’s intention to deport several Maltese citizens, Sir Ugo suffered a heart attack as he was delivering a stirring speech against the government’s intention. Two days later, he passed away. He is buried at Lija cemetery.
Mifsud married Maria Beatrice Francia in 1928.
On the twenty-first anniversary of Sir Ugo’s death a marble monument at Floriana was erected to his memory.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.