Vivian Wyatt’s centrepage feature (The Sunday Times, July 1) transported me back to my days at the University, just over 40 years ago, when I was doing research for my BA dissertation about Sir Temi Zammit.

At that time, I probed the same sources mentioned by Dr Wyatt, came across the same anomalies, and the same open questions as to Sammut or Zammit. I did not find any definite answers, even though, at the time, I still could have asked his children.

Dr Wyatt stated that Sir Temi must have been known as Fioravanti Sammut, when he was still at school. However, I would question this.

Sir Temi’s adoption of the name Themistocles Zammit is pinned by Dr Wyatt to the fact that he used to sign articles in Fabrizio Borg’s La Rivista Medica (1889) with the initials T.Z. And here comes my second question. Should we take this as a terminus post quem (from now on) or as a terminus ante quem (it was so even before)?

This is where a little bit of information I came across about 40 years ago may come to the rescue – though not definitely.

At the time, Sir Temi’s relatives lent me some of his books. They were not really of much use to me in my research then, as these happened to be prize books for Italian and Religion he was given in his last year at the Lyceum in 1882 and the inscription names him as T. (hemistocles) Zammit.

This would confirm that at least since his Lyceum days, Sir Temi must have already been known as Themistocles or Temistocle Zammit.

A further note regarding his birth date. Dr Wyatt states it was December 30, 1863. Yet the official Atto di Nascita (birth certificate) reproduced in the feature clearly states that it was 30 Settembre 1864 and that it was registered eight days later – 8 Ottobre 1864.

A baptism certificate acquired in my student days from the parish priest’s office of St Dominic’s in Valletta also records September 30, 1864, as his birth date and October 2, 1864, as his baptism date. However, in both cases, the surname is unquestionably Sammut.