Dedicated to the memory of Peter de Bono

Welcome to our memorial to Peter who died on 11 May 2021.  He was at home, where he wanted to be, with his beloved wife Valerie.

In recent years Peter suffered from the debilitating effects of both COPD and Vascular Parkinson which curtailed his previously active life; he spent many years travelling for business, tending his colourful garden, cooking and hosting EFL students some of whom became lasting friends. 

Please do share on here any thoughts, memories, photographs of Peter and his life.

 

TRIBUTE TO PETER: A REMARKABLE MAN
From Martin Scicluna

This on-line tribute to Peter is a wonderful way of remembering him and giving thanks for his life. 

When someone we are very fond of dies, our love and affection – and our sorrow – are fused into one emotion.  Thanksgiving for such a life.  Sadness that it has ended.  These are inseparable companions.
 
Peter and I were virtually the same age.  Born and brought up in Malta, we both left there to live in England at the same time. I knew him all his life.  We were at the same prep school (the Convent of the Sacred Heart) and the same boarding school (St Edward’s College).
 
It is impossible to think of Peter without my sister, Valerie, whom he loved deeply.  She in turn has cared for him over the last 6 years with exemplary devotion, love and utter dedication.
 
Peter was a remarkable man. He was a gardener, a carpenter, a wonderful handyman on anything you can think of. A brilliant cook. I remember vividly when, aged 13, he took over all the cooking for our scout troop on our first ever post-war visit to Malta’s sister island of Gozo. And his timpana made especially for my wife, Lorie, when we were first married, to introduce her to Malta’s national dish.
 
He was a dressmaker to Valerie. An outstanding athlete.  A pioneer of what we called in those early days ‘computing’, who foresaw the impact it would have on our lives. He was full of ideas. He was an Army officer who, when he left, led the way teaching and promoting worldwide his brother Edward’s art of Lateral Thinking.
 
But, above all, he was an absolutely devoted husband to Valerie, as well as an exemplary father to his children, Nicky and Michael and his grandchildren Felix, Tilly, Isabel and India.
 
Peter was a man of total integrity and honour. a man without malice,  he never said anything nasty about anybody.  Above all, he was a man of strong and unwavering Catholic faith.
 
Today, the greatest emptiness is felt by Valerie with whom he shared so much love and happiness over a wonderful marriage of 61 years. Our hearts go out to her and to Nicky and Michael and the grandchildren, as well as to his older brother Edward, and many relatives and friends in Malta and elsewhere.
 
All of us can share in the comfort that our memories of Peter are good ones. Nothing he did was for effect, or advantage, or calculation, or influence.  To remember him is not to be sad, but to feel fortunate and uplifted to have known him. He always did what he believed to be right – a rare and precious gift.
 
While we grieve at his passing, we all have the inspiration of a life well lived. Quite simply, he made our life a better place.


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Peter was a figure at times larger than life to whom the word "impossible" was always a challenge to prove otherwise. Please share your memories as an illustration of his life

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