What have the Feans, Palks, Mertens and the Wiltons in common? They all served their countries as Ambassadors and High Commissioners to Malta in that most exciting period from 2002-2006, the time of the EU referendum, general elections and Malta becoming a member of the European Union. They considered their posting to Valletta as one of the most enjoyable in their careers.

British High Commissioner Sir Vincent Fean and his Australian colleague Richard Palk, German Ambassador Georg Merten and Dutch Ambassador Rienko Wilton are all retired now, living in Twickenham, Brisbane, Cologne and The Hague with their wives Anne, Helen, Ada and Elske.

From right: Vincent Fean, Elske Wilton and Anne Fean.

Since they met in Malta they have become close friends visiting each other regularly, also at new postings. The first ‘Malta Diplomatic Reunion’ took place in Brussels, a second one in East Jerusalem and the most recent in July in The Hague. Here, instead of receiving their guests at ‘The Laurels’ in front of Ta’ Xbiex Marina, Rienko and Elske Wilton welcomed their former colleagues to their home in the residential suburb Park Marlot.

As in the good old days, host and hostess entertained their friends with a grand welcome dinner and farewell lunch three days later, the time in between presenting a sight-seeing programme of museums in Amsterdam and The Hague and castles and cows in the countryside. In the meantime, the group of eight had a lot of fun, at length telling and listening to the so many stories, looking at photos and discussing books on Malta.

Helpful in this respect were Peter Apap Bologna’s recently acquired Memories and John Manduca’s The Flavour of the Mintoff Era. In The Hague it was once more demonstrated that some former Ambassadors serving in Malta more than a decade ago, take delight in reviving the so many positive and historical moments they shared among themselves and with the Maltese people at the time.