Malta should have a monument listing all the Maltese victims of the first and the second world wars, the Democratic Party said.

In a statement issued in the week that Malta marked the 77th anniversary of the pivotal Sta Marija convoy, the party said that while there are monuments documenting the Maltese killed in the Second World War across various towns and villages, there is no list for the 800 or so dead from the First World War.

"They are not any less important," party leader Godfrey Farrugia said.

"Total collective casualties from both wars reach just under 3000 names. Our heritage comes in many forms, and the memory of the Maltese who gave their lives in these conflicts should not be forgotten," said spokesman Timothy Alden.

"Many Maltese today still remember the wars and further efforts must be made to pass on and preserve the collective memory. It is in this respect that Partit Demokratiku is calling for all names to be recorded in public. Europe, and indeed the world, would be a very different place today without the many sacrifices made by Malta and her allies."

Historical note

For a time, Malta did actually have a memorial to the victims of World War One - the War Memorial in Floriana, inaugurated in 1938, had tablets on three sides with the names of all the Maltese victims of World War I. All the 592 Maltese were listed in an edition of the Government Gazette No. 8501, dated November 19, 1938. 

But after the Second World War the memorial was relocated (to align it with St Anne Street) and altered to also recall the second great conflict and the panels were removed. 

The late Times of Malta journalist and respected war historian John A Mizzi gives an insight about their removal here. 

The War Memorial now bears Malta's Armorial bearings, King George V's message to Lord Methuen, Governor of Malta at the end of the first world war. King George V's letter awarding the George Cross to Malta in 1942 and US President Franklin Roosevelt's Malta citation of the following year.