Today is a red-letter day for Joseph Cassar of Zabbar, as he fondly remembers his grandfather Paolo Bonnici, a World War I veteran, who died along with 70 other Maltese seamen on HMS Louvain on January 20, 1918.
However, Mr Cassar believes that his grandfather's name, together with the other Maltese, should be placed on a fitting memorial that would honour their memory.
They used to be commemorated on the Floriana War Memorial and were among 592 Maltese whose names were on it when the memorial was unveiled on November 11, 1938, 20 years after the signing of the Armistice which ended World War I.
But after World War II, these names were replaced by four tablets reproducing Malta's Armorial bearings, King George V's message, King George V's letter awarding the George Cross to Malta in 1942 and US President Franklin Roosevelt's citation of the following year.
The Louvain, an armed boarding steamer of the British Navy, formerly the Dresden, arrived in Malta on January 15, 1918 from Taranto, Italy, and left a short while after for Mudros, Greece.
Sadly, the Louvain never made it, as it sank with a crew of about 224 men after being torpedoed by the German submarine UC22, a coastal minelayer type, in the eastern Mediterranean.
"Our ancestors are part of us and we of them. My mother was just three when my grandfather died. What I gathered from my mother was that my grandmother took the news very badly and that her health quickly showed signs of deterioration.
"Unfortunately my mother couldn't say much about my grandfather, as she was still very young. I never saw photos of him but still admired him and thought of him as a brave man. Now, that I am older and with the help of modern media technology, I am better informed and feel a bigger attachment to my grandfather," Mr Cassar told The Sunday Times.
Researching this fateful war episode in great detail in a bid to discover what happened to his grandfather, a trimmer in the Mercantile Marine Reserve, gathering bits and pieces from the Internet and trying to put them together has been an arduous task, but "now that I know what happened 90 years ago and that my grandfather died a hero, I am a happy man".
A detailed namelist of the crew, including rank, regiment, age and date of death, is available on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission homepage ( www.cwgc.org ).
It's interesting to note that C. Azzopardi, 'husband of Agostina Abela, of 28 Strada Carmine, Casal Zabbar', a survivor, who was badly injured during the bombardment, was eventually taken to a hospital in Greece, where he died a few days later. He is now buried at the Syra New British Cemetery in Greece.
Gaunt and Salway Family Tree ( www.salways.co.uk ) have also created a page in remembrance of the crew.
A touching story about one of the 14 survivors, Walter Lord, recounted by his daughter Dianne Lord Shaw says: "Dad was supposed to sleep below deck that night, but because it was too stuffy he decided to sleep on deck. He was in his hammock in the front part of the ship when a shell hit the back part and the ship immediately began sinking...
"Dad swam for several hours before being picked up by their escort destroyer... As a result of being in the water for so long, he contracted typhoid fever and was in a hospital in Malta for quite a while." ( www.lordfam.com )
Mr Cassar said the families of the deceased crew were given war memorabilia by the British naval authorities that included a bronze plaque, service medals and booklets showing the Plymouth War Memorial and the names of other servicemen who lost their lives during 1918.
The names of the deceased men, including Paolo Bonnici, are inscribed on a naval memorial at the port of Plymouth.