Frank Attard, long regarded as one of the most distinguished photographers in Malta’s journalistic history and widely recognised for his images of Queen Elizabeth II, has died on Tuesday at the age of 97.
His association with the Times of Malta spanned more than five decades. He joined the organisation in 1942 at the age of fourteen as a paperboy and retired in 1998 as one of its most consequential visual chroniclers.
Attard received both the Midalja għall-Qadi tar-Repubblika and the Maltese Journalists’ Gold Award in acknowledgement of his professional contribution.
His early years coincided with the Second World War, during which he would walk from Ħamrun to Valletta before dawn to transport rolls of The Times and Il-Berqa by handcart to Floriana, where bus drivers would take them on to their final destinations.
His photographic career began by circumstance five years later, when he was asked to cover a football match at the Gżira stadium in the absence of an assigned photographer.
He later explained that he had received no formal instruction and was simply told to take photographs, a task that ultimately defined his life’s work. Over the following decades, the camera became a near-constant companion, and his name became closely linked to some of the most memorable images of the British monarch.
Attard is survived by his daughter, as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His funeral is scheduled to take place on Saturday in Birżebbuġa.
Photo: Matthew Mirabelli/ Times of Malta