Tessa Anastasi of Swieqi’s view (‘Remembering World War I’, The Sunday Times of Malta, April 6) that there are indeed “many other Maltese descendants of people who died or fought in this war [World War I]” is indeed shared by many.

One such group of descendants is that of those whose ancestors died on His Majesty’s ships in the Battle of Jutland (May 31-June 1, 1916) which were sunk by German ships in Norway.

Their names, including inter alia, Portelli, Fondacaro, Ronsisvalle, Giglio, Montesin, Venturi, Stevenson and Blackman (both from the Royal Malta Artillery), Consiglio, and others are all to be found on the War Memorial in Plymouth Hoe, and were once also on one of the facades of our own War Memorial in Floriana.

It is wrong to consider World War I as some war in which the Maltese did not participate and also die for liberty, democracy, and the protection of their homeland, even if the fighting may have been done in various theatres of that war.