Leslie Agius: a life devoted to serving Malta

Few have lived a life as colourful and varied as Leslie Agius who passed on to a better life at Mater Dei Hospital on August 12, aged 78, after a long illness.

A beloved husband, devoted father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Leslie was also a diplomat, mentor, an entertainer and teller of great stories and terrible jokes.

Football was a lifelong passion of Leslie’s, from his days at Mosta’s Oratorju Qalb Ta’ Gesu, where he met his future wife, Vicky.

A proud Mosti, Leslie played for Mosta FC, Hibernians and Floriana in his youth, and would fondly recall how his first match after signing for Hibs was a 1963 exhibition match against Chelsea FC.

Matthew with his father Leslie

Leslie’s life was defined by his sense of duty. He served his country on the diplomatic front with postings to Brussels, Rome, Tripoli and Washington, amongst others, in the 1970s and early 80s. He went on to make important contributions to Malta’s tourism industry as the Director of the National Tourism Office of Malta (NTOM) in the UK later that decade.

He returned to Malta in the 1990s as Director of the University of Malta’s International Office, and Chief Executive of the Foundation for International Studies at the Valletta campus, during which time he reformed the university’s Institute for Islands and Small States. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of the CHOGM task force in 2005.

In the decades that followed, Leslie advised and mentored a generation of Maltese diplomats, besides actively contributing to the Malta Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Archdiocese of Malta’s Discern think-tank and other good causes.

He continued to lend his organisational abilities to other good causes and charitable organisations in his later years.

Leslie leaves to mourn his wife Vicky, sons Christopher, Jean-Pierre and Matthew and daughter Laura, his grandchildren and great grandchild, his siblings Joe, Herbert, Liliana, Marika, Anna and Tanya, as well as their respective families.

Funeral Mass will be said on Wednesday, August 16, at 8.30am at Mosta Basilica.

The Agius family request that donations be made to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Malta or the Malta Dementia Society, in lieu of flowers.

The team at MaltaToday offers its condolences to Matthew and his family