The circumstances surrounding the accidental death of Paul Attard are still being cleared up but the details pale when compared at the shock of his passing away.

Paul was the archetypical great servant or ‘commis’ of the State, which he served to the best of his many abilities and his incredible uprightness.

He comes from Hamrun, where I come from and we once spoke about the religious training he got from the Jesuits at the ‘Milites Christi Regis’ or Lega in High Street with discipline and rigour instilled in all from an early age.

He served the State especially in the educational sector where in recent years he was Permanent Secretary, and later Chairman of the Board of Governors when the plans for the present expansion now taking place were laid.

He was also, and I believe still is, the Chairman of the St John’s Cathedral Foundation and you could feel his pride when time and again he delivered the opening speech at yet another completion of another chapel’s restoration. It will have to be one of those ironic twists of fate that he did not live to see the completion of the entire restoration.

Paul was a great lover of all things cultural and historic and I, for one, will miss his company when after another DLH lecture we would slowly walk out to City Gate in comfortable company. He also used to tell others that if he forgot any detail of the lecture, my article the following Sunday would fill in the gaps.

I have to say this for it would be an insult to leave it out – the last months of his life were made miserable by the more than shabby treatment meted out to his son, the winner of the Sandhurst award and a glory to Maltese soldiery.

My heartfelt condolences to his sisters and his brother.