I was thrilled to see such a brilliant photo of two of my very best friends on the backpage of December 14 and I must congratulate the photographer, Mark Zammit Cordina.

The Mifsud Bonnicis were refugees in Gozo when Italy entered the war in June 1940.  Carmelo, Il-Gross, was in very poor health, and JoJo, as the eldest son was known by everybody; at 10 years of age was practically my twin. Unlike his father he looked like a toothpick and was very sociable while Ugo, two years younger, was very quiet and reserved.

Although Il-Gross was a great Italian scholar, his children were brought up in an English school and they used to bring me some of his books, like those by Salgari and Pirandello so that I could read them and relate the stories in the evening during the curfew.

Ugo was well built and as tall as me and he would later point out that I was actually much older and used to tell him stories when he was young.

JoJo was otherwise very well read and he could hold an argument about anything.  In the rough and tumble of Gozo’s street life, he could not hold his own in our burly street football matches.  When the time came to return to Malta, JoJo took up a job to help the family budget and allow Ugo to start reading law. It was only after Ugo’s graduation that he started reading law himself. A very noble act.

When we too moved to Malta I started seeing a lot of JoJo, especially at the café in the evening where we used to divide ourselves in two teams and play quiz, the losers paying the bill. JoJo was quite formidable but he would not allow questions about sport, which he contended were not cultural. We would not allow questions on classical music – on which he was very strong – as being too cultural.

As a compromise I would lend him my Calcio Illustrato which was his introduction to continental football. Eventually JoJo was nominated president of the Malta Football Association.  After graduating, JoJo was, among other things, legal adviser to the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers for many years.

He also started lecturing on the philosophy of law and I understand he did this verywell indeed.

When he became a judge and later chief justice he showed that a sense of justice was ingrained in him.

My contacts with Ugo were fewer but I remember a case where I was appointed court expert on a complicated case which went on and on. When I retired and started writing I asked Ugo, who had just retired as President, whether he would be kind enough to write the foreword for my first book I  Remember.

He did and it was a very kind foreword indeed.