The first time we met was in September 1964. After completing my two-year teachers’ course at St Michael’s College, I was posted at Żabbar Boys’ Primary School as a permanent teacher.

Evarist Saliba was a UK-trained teacher and headmaster there. Little did I know then that we would become friends and enjoy each other’s respect for such a long time.

On the first day I went to Żabbar, he called me into his office for a chat. He asked me about myself. Among other things I told him I was an active scouter in the Victoria Scout Group and, besides the Baden Powell Award, I had a certificate in first aid from the St John’s Ambulance Brigade. It was then that he told me that I was the right person to have the first aid box in my class; and I subsequently would ‘nurse’ any slight wounds at the school.

He also asked me to help him with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DoEA) scheme he was running at the school. I was happy that my future headmaster acknowledged my experience.

That was the beginning of a very respectful relationship in our lives. Mr Saliba used to take me with him to hear lectures on the DoEA by British personnel in Tal-Ħandaq Barracks. And it was on one of these trips that he stopped for a few minutes at his home in Blossoms Junction, Santa Luċija. I loved the environment and thought then how wonderful it would be if I were to live in such a place. It was this experience that helped me eventually decide to buy a plot of land and build my house in this new town.

Mr Saliba subsequently left education to join Malta’s diplomatic service. And for several years we almost lost contact. It was when he was appointed permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in May 1987, soon after the Nationalist government took office, that we met again.

Evarist Saliba, headmaster (left) together with Joe Zammit Ciantar and his class in the yard of Żabbar Boys' Primary School in 1965.

Mr Saliba called me to his office in Castille and asked me if I would take up the post of an ambassador. Without any hesitation, I gently reclined and told him my career is definitely teaching. Such was his faith in me!

Mr Saliba and I remained friends even though our meetings were rare. In 2006, however, Mr Saliba and I started to have frequent meetings about his biographical opus No, Honourable Minister, which was later published by Book Distributors Ltd. As I was responsible for its design, we discussed how to present the material, what photos to use and what book cover to choose.

When he left Malta and settled in England, we used to contact each other by e-mail. I knew he was reading and he appreciated my articles published in the Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta.

As a family man, Mr Saliba was a righteous, respectful, gentleman, one of the very few I have met with in my life. He passed away on October 9. I will always remember him as one of my special friends, a friend to remember, an exemplary father, a loyal gentleman, a commendable educator, and a truly faithful and dutiful diplomat. Goodbye Evarist.

My heartfelt condolences to his family.