A building is often a shelter from the elements for people to live in, work or, perhaps, to be used as a store.

Some buildings are primarily erected for an aesthetic purpose or for defence or as a show of strength. In Malta they are now often seen as a way of making money.

Of course, some buildings have more than one purpose. However, buildings often have stories to tell, either because of the activities that took place within it, or the people that lived there.

One building that is more than the sum of its parts is Moynihan House in St George’s Bay, St Julian’s. A block of unassuming, low buildings close to the sea might be easily overlooked even though the architecture is typical of the period and worthy of preservation on its  own merits and in its location.

The name is already a hint to its importance as it is foreign sounding name, but the unwary might stumble upon a marble memorial on the side of the building.

Captain Andrew Moynihan lived there and Lord Berkeley Moynihan was born there.

These are valuable indicators of the importance of the building. Captain Moynihan fought in the Crimea and was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy.

Captain Moynihan was billeted in this building and in 1865 had a child, Berkeley, while he lived there. Sadly Captain Moynihan suffered from ‘Malta fever’, probably what is now known as brucellosis after David Bruce discovered the causal relationship between the organism and the disease in 1887. Later, Sir Themistoceles Zammit discovered in 1905 that unpasteurised goat milk was the cause.

Moynihan house is much more than a modest building next to the sea

Unfortunately, Moynihan succumbed to the disease in 1867 and he was buried at Ta’ Braxia cemetery. Mrs Moynihan packed up and relocated to Leeds, taking her son with her. Berkeley would grow up in Leeds where he became a doctor and practised surgery where he was not only a great surgeon, but he became the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England between 1926 and 1932.

This was remarkable as he was the first person living outside London to be appointed president of this prestigious college. He was the founder and editor of the British Journal of Surgery, which is still respected as one of the leading surgical journals in the world.

In 1929 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Moynihan of Leeds. Moynihan was reputed to have said “the perfect surgeon should have the heart of a lion and the hands of a lady, not the claws of a lion and the heart of a sheep”.

Although perhaps not considered politically correct nowadays, this is still valid when one understands that he meant that a surgeon must treat his patients’ tissues and organs gently.

Moynihan House is much more than a modest building next to the sea. Unfortunately, it is within a developer’s grasp and it will soon be demolished to build yet another anonymous block of flats/offices/hotel or whatever.

This is a last desperate plea for the preservation of this part of Malta’s history, a building worth so much more than its value as real estate. Our descendants will never understand how our generation allowed it to be destroyed.

Can’t the developers at least preserve the facade and erect their building sympathetic to the existing Moynihan House, and incorporate a memorial to these two prominent men who lived there?

Gordon Caruana Dingli is a surgeon.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece