College needs Lm100,000 for major improvements

St Edward's College needs Lm100,000 for major improvements and it hopes to raise the money this year, when it marks its 75th anniversary.

The culmination of the events will be held during the week October 12-19, centred round St Edward's Day.

Every effort is being made to contact former members of staff and Old Edwardians to encourage them to join in the many celebrations being planned.

A history of St Edward's College is being published and individuals who have the well-being and goodwill of St Edward's at heart are being invited to support it by becoming "Friends" of the college.

Between 1888 and 1908 a school was established in what is today Old College Street, Sliema by the English province of the Jesuit Fathers. When this closed, Lady Strickland, Countess della Catena, founded St Edward's College on January 18, 1929. On October 1, 1929, the college in Cottonera opened its doors for the first time - the building which was to be its home ever since, except for a brief period during World War II when it moved to Mdina.

"Edwardians" have over the years featured prominently, both internationally and domestically in a whole range of professions and callings.

There have been a senior judge in the United Kingdom, an internationally renowned thinker and inventor of lateral thinking, chairmen and partners of leading international accountancy firms, senior international civil servants in the United Kingdom, at the United Nations and Nato, advisers of the prime minister and various ambassadors of Malta.

The school has also produced senior officers in the British Army and the Royal Air Force and three commanders of Malta's Armed Forces, a leading international expert in tropical diseases, an internationally acclaimed architect, lawyers, dentists, university lecturers, surgeons and doctors.

Major Maltese and international businessmen and several captains of industry, leading Church figures and editors and journalists in the media have also been among the Edwardian product.

Maltese sport and the international sporting world have also featured.

There is not a single profession in Malta - except possibly politics (albeit even here the college can count one former minister and a distinguished President who spent some of his childhood at St Edward's) - which has not had an Edwardian filling its top-most reaches.

Further details may be obtained by contacting the headmaster on 2182 7077 or by e-mail on hm@stedwards.edu.mt.