Prime Minister Joseph Muscat paid tribute to Malta’s first Prime Minister under Colonial Government Joseph Howard on the 156th anniversary of his birth.

​After serving as an officer in the French Military academy and eventually joining the commercial sector, Joseph Howard was elected member of the Council of Government after being nominated by the Comitato Patriottico. In 1921, he joined the UPM and was elected senator in the first Maltese Parliament and offered the post of Prime Minister. Up to 1923 he led the first Maltese Government with the support of the Labour Party. Considered to be a great gentleman, Joseph Howard was also the president of the government emigration committee and in 1919 he led a delegation to France to discuss the employment of Maltese in that country.