Many people, myself included, have heard of Il-Gross and know that his two sons are the former Head of State Ugo and former Chief Justice Gogo, and maybe they also know he did not get his nickname for nothing for he had a really rotund figure, but they had no idea of the real history of the man, except that somehow he was a prime figure of the Nationalist Party in the 1930s.

Nor did many know he wrote poems in three languages.

But now, thanks to a book published by the Fundazzjoni Tumas Fenech and launched on Thursday at The Hilton, that gap has been filled.

Present at the launch were key representatives of the Mifsud Bonnici extended family, which can justly say it is the prime political dynasty in Malta. Apart from the afore-mentioned two sons (and his grandson, former minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici) there was also a strong representation of his brother, Wenzinu’s, family, from former premier Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, his monsignor brother and the priest brother of nephew Edgar Galea Curmi. Apart from quite a full hall, there was also former premier and President Eddie Fenech Adami.

The biographical details were filled in by his son, Professor Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, former Chief Justice, who became very emotional as he read one of his father’s most touching poems.

Il-Gross, aka Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, was born in 1897, the son of a 48-year-old dad, followed, three years later by the birth of his brother Wenzinu.

When he was six his father died and the orphaned family was taken in by an uncle, Ziju Guzi, who apart from his own family, also had two sisters of his wife as part of his household.

Carmelo went to the Liceo and then to university where he became involved in politics with the Partit Nazzjonalista Demokratiku (the Panzavecchia branch), which later on united with Nerik Mizzi’s branch. Carmelo became president of the student body, which organized a well-attended demonstration in Valletta in May 1917, just a few days before the 7 June riots. The students were protesting against changes that the British government wanted to effect in the Course of Laws.

The four students who led the demonstration were arrested and charged but were later freed by the court, hence occasioning yet another demonstration.

Carmelo was present when British soldiers shot the demonstrators on 7 June and killed four; later on, he wrote “Io ero li”

When the National Assembly was set up, Carmelo represented the student body.

He graduated as a lawyer at 22 and became an MP when a PN MP from Gozo became magistrate and Carmelo was co-opted.

He was later re-elected from the Cospicua district in the 1924 election, the 1927 and the 1932 ones as well. He took part in all the debates in Parliament.

The Constitution was suspended by the British government in 1930 and Carmelo, who had become a father (of Giuseppe) in 1930, did not register his son until the Constitution was reinstated in 1932, by which time Ugo had also been born. This is why anagraphically (ie according to the Identity Card) Ugo is older than Giuseppe!

The Constitution was, as said, repristined in 1932 but the Nationalists found out that the British had surreptitiously removed some of the clauses in the document and Carmelo formed part of the PN delegation to argue for the entire 1921 Constitution to be reinstated. The delegation, which also included Nerik Mizzi and Carlo Mallia, moreover argued that Malta had to be handled by the Dominion Office instead of the Colonial Office. This was refused and the party thence was always committed to favour a Dominion Status for Malta. At least, the delegation got back to the elected government of Malta control over the police.

Il-Gross first became a minister (of the Treasury) in 1926, when he was just 29 years old. He was a minister in successive governments.

Then came what is known as the Italian question and Carmelo and Nerik Mizzi parted ways. Nerik Mizzi wanted Italian to continue to be taught in schools but the British colonial masters did not. The Constitution was again suspended.

Nerik Mizzi wanted the party to support a resolution against the British imposition but Carmelo, although in favour of retaining the Italian language, did not want to sign the resolution. Those were the years when the world was gearing up to World War II and when Italy was governed by the Fascist Party.

He ended up isolated in his own party and in January 1935 he resigned from the party. He had been the first secretary general of the unified party.

He then took up teaching law at the university and also practised as a lawyer, taking part in two important trials by jury.

When war broke out in June 1940, he moved the family to Marsascala but when two planes fell in that area just a few days later, he moved his family to Gozo. While the family stayed out of danger in Gozo, he travelled back and forth to attend court. But he suffered a stroke in 1942 and after six semi-vegetative years died in 1948. He had spent just 42 years in active life.

Ugo Mifsud Bonnici then spoke about his father’s literary production. The book clearly shows not just his culture and the love he felt for the Italian language but also his high spirituality.

Seventeen poems in the book are in Italian – one is the PN anthem while another is a hymn to St Catherine with music by Carlo Diacono that is sung every year at Zejtun.

He also wrote a play, Giuditta da Betulia, which was later translated into Maltese by Guze Chetcuti. Although written in 1919, this play was only published in 1935. The play is dedicated to the Jewish people who at that time was being persecuted in Germany – something roundly condemned by the author who said Europe ‘should be ashamed of itself’.

The book also contains conferences by Carmelo on George Bernard Shaw, Tolstoy, Goethe and Manzoni, as well as two essays – one about Francesca da Rimini in literature from Dante to G d’Annunzio and one about Mary Magdalen in Maeterlinck.

The book also includes essays in English about British writers with connections to Malta such as Sir Walter Scott, Coleridge, Thackeray and Hookam Frère. As minister, Carmelo had unveiled a plaque showing where Sir Walter Scott had resided in Malta.

Oliver Friggieri described Il-Gross as exemplifying the Maltese “compromesso storico” not just between the political ideas later to be enshrined by Dom Mintoff on one side and the Nationalists on the other, but also between those who favoured the Italian language and those who favoured the English language. At the same time, Carmelo was unquestionably very patriotic.

He was also one of the few politicians who took up literature.

Philip Farrugia Randon then read out some poems in Italian, one about how living next to a monastery of enclosed nuns he hears their voices while at chapel and, unable to see them, he still recognises the individual voices and gives them all a name, and another written on one sleepless night in Cottonera, punctuated by the bells ringing every quarter of an hour.

Charles Abela Mizzi then read some poems in Maltese, especially one written for a girl Carmelo had who died infancy in which he imagines her becoming a young lady. Another was written to his dead mother asking her to be present at his deathbed, as she had been so many times with him in his infancy.