Carmelo Thake
Carmelo Thake Esq., C.B.E. (16 September 1896 - 12 February 1977) was Chief of the Maltese Civil Service and the Official Secretary to the Prime Minister of Malta.
Private life[edit]
The Thake Family settled in Malta in circa 1865 when the HMS Royal Oak (1862) brought William Robert Thake, a 24-year-old armourer in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, to Malta during her tour of the Mediterranean. William Robert was the son of William and Harriet Thake of Walthamstow, London. William Robert married Carmela Fenech on 11 February 1867. The ceremony was celebrated in Malta and presided over by Anglican and Roman Catholic clergy as was the practice in Malta at the time. The couple lived at 170, Strada Vittoria, Senglea and had two children, George and Harriet.
Carmelo Thake was the son of George and Felicita nee’ Mercieca. He married Victoria nee’ Bonnici and they had two children, Charles Thake (M.Q.R.) and George Thake. The Thake family so far had resided in the region of Grand Harbour. Carmelo also lived in the harbour area, in Senglea, until Axis bombing forced him to move his family away from the harbour to Fleur de Lys. This decision would prove to have been a timely one since not long after the move the family home was hit by a German bomb and destroyed.[1]
Thake owned a large collection of land and seashells and was a member of the Malacological Society of London and the Conchological Club of Southern California. Though he considered himself to be an amateur conchologist, his collection consisted of several thousand specimens. In a letter to the Conchological Club of Southern California in August 1945, Carmelo described how, following enemy action, he lost a considerable part of his collection but managed to salvage roughly 5,000 specimens.[2]
Career[edit]
Carmelo and his brothers, Lawrence and William, all worked in the Maltese Civil Service. During his service, Lawrence Thake (30 April 1908 – 18 April 1989) was awarded the George Medal for an act of gallantry at Senglea on 7 September 1940. The citation in the London Gazette of 30 May 1941 reads: “An unexploded time bomb passed through a house and into a well. Mr. Thake was in charge of a gang of men who were pumping water from a well, fifteen feet deep, into which an unexploded time bomb had fallen. He descended twice into the well in order to remove mud from around the bomb and remained there for some considerable time. Mr. Thake showed great courage and set a fine example to his men.”[3]
Carmelo was appointed assistant secretary in the Lieutenant-Governor’s Office by the Secretary of State for the Colonies with effect from 10 March 1944 and shortly after would be appointed Official Secretary to the Prime Minister of Malta. On 1 January 1949, Thake made the New Year’s Honour List and was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) (Civil) by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.[4] Five years later, during the Queen's Birthday Honours, Thake was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) (Civil).[5] Later, Thake would decline a further appointment to the office of Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (K.B.E.).
In all, Thake would act as Official Secretary to four different Maltese Prime Ministers: Paul Boffa (Malta Labour Party), Enrico Mizzi (Nationalist Party), Domnic Mintoff (Malta Labour Party), and George Borg Olivier (Nationalist Party).
Honours and Awards[edit]
Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.)
Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.)
References[edit]
- ↑ Gauci Borda, Lino, Tentuf Mill-Memorji ta' Lino Gauci Borda: Fleur-de-Lys f'dawn l-aħħar 75 sena (BDL Books, 2014), p. 57.
- ↑ “My shell collection which numbered several thousands, most unfortunately was severely damaged, and of course, irreparably, through enemy action; but what at great pains I have succeeded in salvaging (something in the neighborhood) of 5000 specimens all told) is I consider enough encouragement to make me attempt rebuilding what I have always held as my treasure...” - Minutes of the Conchological Club of Southern California, No. 51, August, 1945, p. 65.
- ↑ Supplement to the London Gazette, 30 May, 1941.
- ↑ Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 January, 1949.
- ↑ Supplement to the London Gazette, 10 June, 1954.
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