The Qormi local council is refusing to list on a monument to civilian casualties the names of a couple killed in WWII, arguing they cannot be classified as war dead as they did not die of enemy action.

Gaetano Agius, the son of Alfred and Dolores, said his parents were killed when an RAF Wellington bomber on its way to bomb oil tanks in Naples on Monday, November 4, 1940, crashed on their house in Dun Mario Street in the dead of night.

Alfred and Dolores, who were asleep, were trapped in the blazing building. Gaetano, who was nine at the time, remembers his mother calling to them to get out, but he could not do so because he was caught under debris. With tears in his eyes he said she was burnt alive when she remained inside the building trying to get her siblings out.

A newspaper report in The Times of Malta the following day gave details about how the crash took place. Joseph Zammit, a member of the Royal Engineers, known as Il-Putes, helped the children out of the building while police constable Carmel Camilleri, who assisted one of the crew out of the blazing wreck age of the aircraft, was later awarded the George Medal for gallantry.

"I got to know about this monument last September when I was visiting the Aviation Museum at Ta' Qali. I went there and was shocked to see that my parents' names were not on it, so I went to the council, who gave me the name of one Joe Grech, who had been entrusted by the council to draw up the list of wartime dead for them.

"Mr Grech explained that my parents' names were not listed in the war records office so they were not officially war casualties.

"To me this does not make any sense, for if the crew are listed in the roll of honour and classified as wartime dead, the council cannot argue that my parents cannot be classified as war victims simply because it was a friendly aircraft that killed them in an accident," Mr Agius said.

"I am prepared to pay for a small marble plaque myself but I want to the council to do it as we are talking about a public monument. I don't have the authority to do such thing.

"The monument is a lie as it does not list all the victims," he said.

Contacted by The Times, Mr Grech said he obtained the names one can see on the monument from the war records office through the British Embassy in Rome.

"The civilians listed died as a result of enemy action. Mr Agius's parents died in a RAF accident and although they died during the war, enemy action did not cause their death. It's not I who decides. If they are not listed in the records of the War Graves Commission, I cannot do anything about it," he said.

Mr Grech said he had lobbied the council to build such a monument as his father, grandfather and uncle had died in the war. There were monuments in other towns and villages, but not in Qormi. The monument had been erected in 1980s and he later suggested that the names of those who died in enemy action would be inscribed on it.

"I then obtained records from the War Graves Commission, and Mayor Jesmond Aquilina acceeded to my request," he said.

Contacted for a reaction, the mayor said that while empathising with Mr Agius, the council "had to draw the line somewhere."

"Others may have died in other accidents during the war. What do you do? I find no objection for other inclusions, but we need an official letter to show that these really died in a war-related incident," he said.

War historian John Mizzi, editor of the Malta at War magazine, said when contacted, that Mr Agius's parents had to be classified as war dead because they were killed during a war operation, even though the aircraft was British.

"When gunners were killed when shells or guns blew up, they were still classified as war victims.

"There were in fact persons who were killed by aircraft falling on them, whether friendly or enemy, and these were as much wartime victims as those killed by bombs or mines or explosive ordnance, whether friendly or enemy. Death in war can be caused in a number of ways.

"I am convinced Mr Agius's parents are war victims and their names should be listed.

"Had they been run over by an Army car, or broken their neck falling into a bomb crater, it would have been a different matter, but they were killed by a war plane which was on a bombing mission," Mr Mizzi said.

"The mayor should use common sense and not rely only on the War Graves Commission which deals with the deaths of military personnel and not civilians."