Sir Philip and Lady Maude had eleven children. They had their children while living at 136 Tower Road, Sliema, three doors down from Maude’s parents at number 133. Many of their friends also lived in Sliema. All of the children laughed, learned and played together, and it was an absolutely wonderful way to spend the first part of their lives.
John Pullicino, born on the 27th of June, 1912, married Mary Bonello on the 2nd of September, 1937. John had a distinguished legal career, later becoming involved in some government roles. They had two children.
The couple’s second child, Mary Rose Pullicino, married Alfred ‘Fritz’ Zammit Cutajar on the 1st September, 1938. They had three children.
Philip ‘Philo’ Pullicino, the third child, wed Laura Cavarra on the 3rd June, 1940. Philip had a distinguished diplomatic career, which he recounts in his autobiographic book Road to Rome (2012). They had four children.
Anthony Alfred ‘Tony’ Pullicino, born on the 14th March, 1917, married Edith Baker on the 2nd of September, 1944. They had five children.
Francis Talbot Pullicino, born on the 12th October, 1918, married Jane Grech at an 5 October 1944. His mother contributed the name ‘Talbot’ in honour of the SS Talbot which saved her father. He was a doctor of pathology. They had two children.
Patricia ‘Patsy’ Pullicino married Major Alfred ‘Freddie’ Stagno Navarra on the 12th of October, 1942. They had seven children.
Paul Pullicino, born on the 22nd February, 1921, married Mary Galea on the 20th of February, 1949. They had three children.
Michael Otto Pullicino, the eighth child, married Sheila O’Connell, a Belfast girl (note: she is the sister of Georgina’s husband John Henry O’Connell) on the 27th of April, 1949. They had one child.
Georgina Henrietta ‘Ena’ Pullicino, born on the 30th of January, 1924, married Dr John Henry O’Connell RAF by proxy at the Cathedral Church Mdina on 5 October 1942, and flew to Gilgil in Kenya in a Royal Air Force plane to join her husband. They had seven children.
Anne Pullicino was born in Mdina in 1925 shortly after the family moved there. After annulling her first marriage with Robert Lee-Watson (US Navy), married Thomas Joseph Agius Ferrante on the 10th August 1949. Anne was a mover and shaker in Maltese politics and a mentor to other women who came after her. They had two children.
The youngest of the eleven children, Josephine ‘Jo’ Pullicino, born 30 November 1926, married Commander Peter Jackson-Sytner DSC RN on 17 November 1954. They had two children. Jo was the last of ”The Eleven” to pass away, on 10 November 2024.
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