I’ve finally found a photo of Carmelo Rizzo, the last manager of the Malta Railway between 1924 and 1931. He had quite the career it seems.

He was an engineer, 1st class, and noted in Government publications with his professional standing as architect and civil engineer. He held a management role in the water division of the Water and Electricity Department. When he was appointed as “acting” manager to the railway it was on top of his existing job. He received an additional £200 to act as caretaker manager on top of his £420 wage in the water division.

His interests spread far beyond engineering however, and he was a keen amateur archaeologist. He was responsible for discovering several prehistoric monuments, only some through the course of his work. He closely collaborated with the more famous Sir Themi Zammit and was engaged in numerous excavations in Malta including Ghar Dalam. He clearly had an understanding of the importance of posterity and preservation. It wasn’t so much of a peculiar jump then, in 1935, to go from the water works department to become national Director of Museums.

One of his tasks in office was to report on the Bennet Report, written by the same A R Bennet, a well-regarded locomotive engineer, who’d authored an article on the railway in The Locomotive magazine the year previous. Rizzo considered Bennet’s recommendation, that Sentinel Steam railmotors like that recently trialled on the Jersey Railway be utilised, would ultimately prove a false economy in the face of the competition faced by the Railway.