Description
Dr Censu Tabone was a former doctor and statesman who served as the fourth President of Malta.
He was born in Victoria in Gozo in 1913 and was educated at St Aloysius College in Birkirkara.
He then went on to the Royal University of Malta where he graduated as a Pharmacist and a Doctor of Medicine.
During the war he served as a medical officer at the Royal Navy Hospital in Mtarfa.
In 1946, he was awarded a Diploma in Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and was later elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
His success in treating the infectious eye disease trachoma in Gozo brought him to the attention of the World Health Organisation, which employed him as its first ophthalmic consultant.
He helped launch similar anti-trachoma campaigns in Taiwan, Indonesia and Iraq.
In 1954, Dr Tabone founded the Medical Association of Malta before entering politics.
He was an MP for 33 years and the districts he represented included Msida, St Julian’s, Sliema and Gzira.
Dr Tabone took the Oath of Office as President of Malta in March 1989.
He sadly passed away on 14 March 2012, just 16 days shy of his 99th birthday.
What are your memories of Dr Tabone? We would love to hear them.
