Frederick W. Ryan – Great historian and even greater visionary
On July 9, 1938, British Governor Sir Charles Bonham-Carter, sitting in the Palace, received a visitor who needled him no end. Frederick W. Ryan came to waste his precious time with “his dreams for a great university in Malta to act as a Mediterranean centre of learning and as a bridge between Europe and Africa and to train Maltese for the service of the Empire”. In his private diary, the Governor pooh-poohed the deluded visionary with a curt “dreams... quite impractical”.
That turned out to be a grim day for a particularly tetchy Bonham-Carter. Ryan was followed by Dun Edgar Salomone,... This article is part of our premium content. Full story is available on Times of Malta Premium.