Herbert Ganado
Encyclopedia
Herbert Ganado was a Maltese
Maltese people
The Maltese are an ethnic group indigenous to the Southern European nation of Malta, and identified with the Maltese language. Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea...

 lawyer, president of Catholic Action
Catholic Action
Catholic Action was the name of many groups of lay Catholics who were attempting to encourage a Catholic influence on society.They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries that fell under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, Italy, Bavaria, France, and...

, editor, politician and author.

Born in Floriana on 7 April 1906 on the island of Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

, Ganado studied at the Lyceum and University of Malta
University of Malta
The University of Malta is the highest educational institution in Malta Europe and is one of the most respected universities in Europe. The University offers undergraduate Bachelor's Degrees, postgraduate Master's Degrees and postgraduate Doctorates .-History:The University of Malta was founded in...

 and graduated as a lawyer in 1931. He was active at university and shortly after became president of the lay movement, Catholic Action. In 1933 he was appointed the third editor of the newspaper Lehen is-Sewwa, the voice of Catholic Action. Ganado succeeded in steering the paper through turbulent times preceding the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and not only converted Lehen is-Sewwa into a daily paper, but also gave it a new look. He widened its scope by covering a wider range of subjects and made it a means for the promotion and dissemination of Catholic culture with a broad view on all religious, social, cultural and even political spheres of Maltese society set within a global context. During the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 Ganado wrote several articles in support of Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

.

In 1939 he was interned without trial by the British colonial
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 authorities for his suspected sympathy with the Italian government of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 and the Italian fascists
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...

. He was subsequently exiled with a number of Maltese nationals to Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

.

After the war he was released, and led a splinter group from the Nationalist Party
Nationalist Party (Malta)
The Nationalist Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party. It was founded by Fortunato Mizzi in 1880 as the Anti-Reform Party, opposing taxation decreed by the British colonial authorities and measures to Anglicise the educational and the...

 to form the Democratic Nationalist Party (Partit Demokratiku Nazzjonalista). However, this was short lived and ultimately unsuccessful in political terms.

He married Alda née Randon and they had five children together, one of whom died shortly after his birth. One of his close friends since his days at university in the 1920s was the homosexual Maltese lawyer, Joseph Flores
Joseph Flores (Maltese politician)
Joseph Flores was a judge and politician from Malta.Flores was born in 1907 in the Maltese town of Hamrun, close to the capital Valletta. Following school he enrolled at the University of Malta and began a course in the study of law...

: indeed it has been suggested that Ganadao and Flores may have been romantically involved. However, Flores became a member of the Malta Labour Party (MLP) under the leadership of Dom Mintoff in the 1950s at the time when Ganado was openly opposed to Mintoff's policy of Integration with Britain. Flores, eventually resigned form the MLP and was made a judge.

His best known literary work is his 4 volume memoirs, Rajt Malta Tinbidel. This work was translated into the English language by another well known Maltese lawyer politician Dr. Michael A. Refalo and titled "My Century". Herbert Ganado Gardens in Floriana are named after him. He died on 8 April 1979 and was interred at Santa Maria Addolorata cemetery.
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