Prime Minister of Malta. The son of a naval officer, Gerald Strickland was educated at St. Mary's College in Oscott and Trinity College in Cambridge. Active in local politics from an early age, he was elected to the council of the government of Malta in 1886. Accompanying Dr. Fortunato Mizzi, founder of the Maltese Nationalist Party, to the first Colonial Conference in London, the result was the drafting of the new Maltese Constitution in December of the following year. Appointed governor of the Leeward Islands and later of Tasmania, Western Australia and New South Wales, he was appointed companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1889 in appreciation for his services during a severe cholera epidemic. Promoted within the order to KCMG in 1897 and again to GCMG in 1913, he was raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Strickland of Sizergh Castle in the county of Westmorland on January 19, 1928. Returning to his native island in 1917 following the grant of the self government, Strickland formed the Anglo-Maltese Party in 1921 which soon amalgamated with the Maltese Constitutional Party to become the Constitutional Party under his leadership. After the 1927 election, Strickland obtained a majority in the Legislative Assembly, becoming thus the fourth Prime Minister of Malta in August 1927, an office which he held until June 1930. Under his government, the construction works of St. Luke's hospital in Guardamangia were commenced. Clashing with the senate and with the local ecclesiastical authorises, on May 1, 1930, Archbishop Mauro Caruana OSB., and Bishop Mikiel Gonzi issued a pastoral letter, read in all the churches of Malta and Gozo, through which they declared that whoever voted for the Constitutional Party and its former coalition partner, the Labour Party, committed a mortal sin. The latter was also imposed on those who read Strickland's newspapers, printed by his Progress Press, namely the "Daily Malta Chronicle" and "Ix-Xemx", which decision led him to start publishing "Il-Progress" and "Il-Berqa". The clash between the Catholic bishops and the Constitutional Party led to the suspension of the Malta Constitution following consultations between the British Governor and London. Leader of the Opposition between 1932 and 1933, he became the leader of the elected majority in the Council of Government following the grant of a new constitution in 1939. Passing away at his residence, Villa Bologna in Attard, he was laid to rest at St. Paul's Cathedral at Mdina.