Adrian Vella, Mark Vella and Rosanne Micallef write:

Succinctly describing a year’s events is rarely straightforward. Summarising Tommy Anastasi Pace’s 96 years full of achievements, and witness to many events, is a task several orders of magnitude greater.

Born in 1914, his father joined the Royal Army Medical Corps soon after, with the rank of captain, and was posted to Palestine. The creation of the British mandate meant the return home of Captain Anastasi was delayed until 1923.

Years later, during an interview with Campus FM, Tommy suggested that the sight of his father leading his company down Kingsway helped determine his choice of career.

Graduating MD in 1937, he declined a Rhodes scholarship and the opportunity to attend the graduation party organised by his parents, opting instead to join the British Army.

The outbreak of the Second World War saw him posted to India, and subsequently Burma, where medical expertise in the prevention and treatment of malaria underpinned Field Marshal Slim’s eventual victories.

By the end of the war, Tommy was an acting lieutenant colonel and the recipient of an OBE.

He met his wife, Josephine Griffiths (Tita), a nurse from Wales, while serving in India and they married in 1942.

They had no children and lived together until Tita passed away in 1998.

His subsequent career took him to every outpost of the British Empire before a posting to Paris as chief of Nato medical services and then retirement to St John’s Wood, London.

During retirement he remained active, frequently performing locum jobs for various regiments including the House Cavalry, until the new licensing requirements of the General Medical Council brought his medical career to a close three years ago.

He was fluent in Turkish, Urdu, and nine other languages. He served as sacristan of the Conventual Church of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta for 30 years and was immensely proud to have been invested as a Knight in June 2009, describing himself as the newest, oldest member of the SMOM.

He maintained his ties with Malta, visiting regularly to spend time with family and friends. Possessed of a sharp wit and always well-versed in current affairs, he also enjoyed reminiscing about his youth in Valletta.

During these visits he always had a packed schedule, and relatives two generations younger often found it difficult to keep up with him. He always insisted on dining out with any family member visiting London and looked forward to gifts of Maltese culinary specialities.

Tommy also made it a point to pay regular visits to any relative, friend or acquaintance who was in hospital in London and help in any possible way. A military man to the core, he had a strict dress code that visiting relatives were expected to adhere to. He remained active within his beloved Conservative Party to the end.

Always immaculately turned out, precise and punctual, he took great delight in getting new acquaintances to underestimate his age by two decades. He continued to march on Armistice Day and visit the D-Day beaches with men many years his junior. Indeed, although already quite unwell, he insisted on making the trip one final time.

His patience and forbearance during his final illness were an example to us all.

Although the final outcome was never in doubt he continued to be his cheery self – keeping the diagnosis of his illness to himself for a few weeks so as not to interfere with the family’s Easter celebrations.

Tommy’s behaviour during this trying time is reminiscent of an episode during the jungle war in Burma when his medical unit was ordered to hold its position at the point of an expected enemy attack.

He instructed his staff to create a barricade using the medical supplies available to them. Knowing full well that these would serve for nought in the event of an attack, he nevertheless felt the need to do his best. That attack never came but he faced his final battle in exactly the same way.

Tommy insisted that nobody should feel sorry for him since he had ‘had a good innings’. However, mourn we must the passing of a truly great man.