BA Honours History graduates Keith Gatt and Gianluca Falzon were jointly awarded the Farsons Foundation Prize for best History Honours Thesis of 2016. History honours theses are based on original archival research and both students chose World War II as the subject of their research.

Gatt’s thesis, entitled ‘The Air Battle for Malta, 1942: Exploring the turning points’, studied the crucial role played by Spitfires and their pilots in winning the air battle over Malta, which was pivotal to the eventual Allied victory in North Africa.

Meanwhile, Falzon’s thesis on ‘The Italian Air War over Malta: What really led to the defeat of the Regia Aeronautica during the siege of 1940-43’, focused to the role of Italy’s air force in the war over Malta’s skies and investigated the reasons for its poor performance and results.

The air battle over Malta was pivotal to the eventual Allied victory in North Africa

As both students obtained the same mark for their work the prize was awarded jointly.

Presenting the prize, Michael Farrugia, director at Simonds Farsons Cisk and a trustee on the Farsons Foundation board, and himself a History graduate from Edinburgh University, commented that he found the skills gained in the study of History had been useful to his own work.

History Department head Prof. Dominic Fenech recalled that Simonds Farsons Cisk used to award a similar prize until the 1970s, adding that he was very happy that this had now been revived and awarded for the third year running. He expressed the hope that the prize would continue to be awarded in the years to come.

The prize was set up in February 2014 following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between SFC plc, the Farsons Foundation and the University of Malta. While the award is funded by Farsons, the winning thesis is chosen by the History Department.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.