John Manduca, former diplomat, journalist, broadcaster and author, died last night aged 87.

Mr Manduca was Malta’s High Commissioner to the UK between 1987 and 1990 and concurrently Ambassador to Norway, Sweden and Denmark and also to Ireland in 1990. He played an important part in restoring and improving relations with the UK in the aftermath of the Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici years, when Anglo-Maltese relations were rocky. 

Mr Manduca joined Allied Newspapers in 1945, and served as deputy editor of The Times of Malta from 1953 – 1962. He was also the Malta correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.

He was the chief executive of the Broadcasting Authority from 1963 – 1968 and was later appointed managing director of the Rediffusion Group of Companies in Malta. In 1975, he and most of the management lost their job as a result of the Mintoff government’s takeover of broadcasting and the setting up of Xandir Malta.  

Mr Manduca was appointed a member of the Broadcasting Authority in 1979 but in 1981 he and Tony Mallia, both of whom had been nominated to the Authority by the then Leader of the Opposition, Eddie Fenech Adami, resigned in protest against the lack of impartiality in broadcasting under the Mintoff government.

In 1983, Mr Manduca was appointed director general of the Confederation of Private Enterprise (Cope), which grouped all the business organisations in Malta.  

Mr Manduca was the editor of Treasures of Malta (published by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti), from 1994 to 2005. He was also the general editor of some 30 books published by Patrimonju of which he served as vice chairman.  

An author of many books, his publications included ‘The Bonham Carter Diaries 1936-1940. What the British Governor thought of Malta and the Maltese’; ‘The Flavour of the Mintoff Era. Secret Negotiations Made Public. Including Confidential Annual Reviews by eight British High Commissioners in Malta 1971-1987’; and ‘The Pens That Felled the Mighty. 100 Years of British cartoons on Malta’; as well as many tourist guide books on Malta and Gozo.

Mr Manduca, an Old Edwardian, served as chairman of the Board of Governors of St Edward’s College from 1995 to 1998 and as Trustee of the Lady Strickland Trust for St Edward’s College from 1997 to 2008.

He was also a director at RTK radio from 1991 to 1993, chairman of the Malta Branch of Institute of Journalists in 1957, 1959 and 1961 and co-chairman of the St Agatha Restoration Fund in Mdina.

In 2003 he was presented with the Gold Award for his contribution to professional journalism. On Republic Day in 2010 he was made a member of the National Order of Merit by President George Abela.
 

 

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