Gżira mourns 'Red Man' who brought 'splash of quiet colour' to the town

Gżira is mourning one of its most colourful characters as news spread of the death of Nicholas James Marson, more popularly known as “Red Man”.

Many took to social media to pay tribute to the “eccentric but gentle” man who added “a much-needed splash of quiet colour to Gżira”.

The news was broken on Tuesday by the town’s Mount Carmel Band Club as Marson used to help out with the festa preparations and even at the club itself. He was also known to feed the cats, birds, and ducks around Gżira and Manoel Island and even took care of watering the plants on the promenade.

Photos posted of “Red Man” show him dressed in his trademark red outfit, cycling around the town on a heavily laden bike, balancing buckets and several bags. Another bike frame was attached to the façade of his old townhouse with a crop of green plants blossoming out of the ground floor window completey blocking any light.

'Red Man' dressed in his trademark outfit was regularly seen cycling around the town on his way to feed cats or ducks or watering the promenade plants. Photo: Mark Camilleri/Facebook

Marson’s neighbour, Joseph Caruana, wrote that he had called an ambulance at 10.20pm on Monday after two people informed him they had spotted a man lying face down on the pavement “without life”.

The ambulance arrived ten minutes later. Marson was taken to hospital but it was too late.

“We are going to miss you Nicky,” Caruana wrote, adding he wanted to thank Marson “on behalf of the cats and birds” for feeding them and taking care of them every day. “They are going to miss you”.

Caruana also said Marson used to water the plants on the Gżira promenade “to keep them alive in the hot summer and make Gżira more beautiful”.

“I hope that they all will still be taken care of now that you cannot take care of them,” he continued.

Marson's house in Gżira. Photo: Mark Camilleri/Facebook

Mark Camilleri, a doctor, paid tribute to Marson, noting that “he was presumably very physically fit, owning to all the cycling, so maybe that was why he never needed to visit us GPs”.

“Rest in peace, Mr Marson. I hope the cycling lanes are safe wherever you’re heading,” he added.

“You will be sorely missed by all the cats and ducks of Gżira and Manoel Island, but you will also be missed by many neighbours, and by those who work nearby, like me.”

Independent local councillor Conrad Borg Manche called Marson “a simple man, without material wealth, but with a heart full of happiness and peace”.

“While many seek luxury and wealth, he only sought one thing: to love and feed the animals,” Borg Manche wrote, adding: “From people like Nicky I learned that true happiness is not in the wealth you have, but in the peace and joy you carry in your heart.”