Orphaned at a very young age when his father died in 1885, he was sent to live with his uncle in Tunis where he attended the school of the Christian Brothers and later on at St Charles College.In 1868 he returned to Malta where he continued his studies at the Seminary in Gozo.
There he met with Dun Karm (Monsignor Carmelo Psaila, the Maltese national poet).
In 1900 he was employed as a clerk with the government and four years later was appointed as Sanitary Inspector after having attended for a course in the Ashton School of Hygiene at the University of Liverpool.
In 1928 he became the editor responsible for all the government translations and publications.