Congratulations to Christopher Grech for the article about carnival costumes of the Xuereb family (The Sunday Times of Malta, February 24). I was particularly struck to see former rector George Xuereb dressed up as a knight’s page.

The author’s uncle, Paul, dressed up as aknight’s page.

However, I must point out that it was not a carnival costume. Boys dressed up as pages used to take part in formal activities organised by the IMEC, Istituto Maltese di Educazione Cattolica, at St James church in Merchants Street, Valletta.

I can vouch for the costume’s unusually high quality because in the early 1950s I wore one myself at one of the competitions in religious knowledge known as the Gara. The winner was elected Imperatur and there was also the Prinċep. I believe that drama critic Paul Xuereb was elected an Imperatur once.

In my case the page’s outfit was a family heirloom, as the attached photo shows. The boy in the photo was an uncle of mine, Paul, of the A’ la Ville de Lyon Camilleris, and that is the costume I wore, and it was last worn by my cousin John Carmel Navarro.

On one occasion my cousin Paul, now a missionary in Brazil, also wore one, and we were stopped by a priest when, after the function, we playfully crossed swords at the door of the church.

The IMEC was an institute that prepared boys for Holy Communion and Confirmation. Mass was held there every Sunday morning, after which we went down to Victoria Gate ditch to play football under the care of Joe Cremona, Archbishop Emeri­tus Paul Cremona’s father, who also taught catechism at San Ġakbu. The last director I know of was Dun Eddie Borg Olivier, and the IMEC was wound up in the 1960s or 1970s.

The costume is still kept by a member of our family. And I would be very grateful for any scanned photos of any Gara that can be sent at this e-mail address:  joseph.m.brincat@um.edu.mt.