While reading a book about Malta’s second siege of 1940-42 by Robert Jackson, (Malta Victory; Yeoman On The George Cross Island 1980, Arthur Barker Ltd. UK (publishers), ISBN 0 213 16748 4), I came across the following sentence which interested me immensely: “Yeoman (the pilot) took no part in the air fighting (he was worn out) for the medical officer at Luqa… ordered him to the military hospital at Umtarfa (sic) for a thorough check-up, after which he had been sent to Palestrina House in St Paul’s Bay, the pilots’ rest camp”.

Although the book is based on a fictional account of an RAF pilot in the hard days before the planned invasion of Malta by the Germans and Italians, it is based on historical facts and, thus, begs the question: Did Palestrina House really exist?

I heard that the RAF had a rest home where pilots suffering from deprivations, hunger and being outnumbered five-to-one were lodged for a well-deserved rest. It existed in the north of the island but wish to verify if this was the actual place.

Maybe a reader of The Times can provide me with a personal record or wartime photo of this house, which I can gladly include in my upcoming account on Malta’s airfields. I can be contacted on 203sqn@onvol.net.