Alfredo Froilano de Mello

The Goan Forum is pleased to present to our readers, one of the main reasons for its existence : The numerous brilliant intellectuals that Goa has produced. These intellectuals have served with distinction in many disparate parts of the world. One facet about these intellectual Goans is that they were and remain fiercely independent, very honest, very hard working, extremely loyal to their task but very humble about their achievements.

Alfredo de Mello is one such intellectual Goan.  It was his experiences and his knowledge which first encouraged us to develop this small website; so that we could slowly but surely compile the views and recollections of our brilliant Goan intellectuals.

Alfredo de Mello was born in Panjim, Goa, in 1924. He is the eldest son of renowned physician, scientist and Goan patriot Froilano de Mello and Hedwig Bachmann.

His early schooling was at home, Villa do Monte, Altinho, Panjim. Well-known tutors, Rajarama, Gama, Quencro and Quenim, came to the house to assist his parents, teach him, Portuguese, mathematics and music - much to the chagrin of the then Portuguese education authorities. He was then sent to Bangalore, where he attended Bishop Cotton Boys School, where he obtained the Cambridge School Certificate. Alfredo completed his B.Sc. at the Madras Christian College, hoping to proceed-on to study medicine at the Madras Medical College. However, as he was a Goan - a foreigner to British India, he was unable to secure a seat despite his excellent qualifying grades.

In July 1943 he set sail to Portugal hoping to study medicine at the Oporto Medical College, where his father was a visiting professor. The Cambridge Certificate and B.Sc. diploma from British-India, were 'foreign' to the Portuguese. It took some time for re-validation( equivalence ) and it was not until January of 1944 that Alfredo got admission to the Faculty of Medicine at Oporto.

The small delay that he faced prior to admission into medical school provided him with an excellent opportunity to enjoy theatre in Lisbon, courtesy of the secretary of the Circle of Cultural Music, who was a Goan. Among the individuals, he met at social get-togethers in Lisbon, was, a Phillip Newman, who, Alfredo was to learn later, was the Chief of British Counter-Espionage in Portugal. Only 19 years of age, at the time, partly naive and full of romantic ideas, he offered to assist Newman and hence got involved in counter-espionage. This action of his, came to haunt him later when he was nearly half-way through medical school.

Alfredo, suddenly now, became, the target of menacing but anonymous telephone calls. He perceived a serious threat to his life; and as a consequence, decided to volunteer, fight in W.W.II for Britain, rather than be a sitting-duck for the Nazis in Oporto. After a rapid training course, he was assigned as a plain soldier, to a commando unit which parachuted into occupied Holland. But as fate would have it, Alfredo and his colleagues were left stranded in 'The Battle of the Bulge' and taken prisoner-of-war by the Nazis on December 17th, 1944. General Patton's men would liberate them four months later.

He returned to Lisbon but could not stomach the trauma of medical-dissection any further, not after having experienced the trauma of World War II. Alfredo lost all interest in the study of medicine. He was already disillusioned by Portugal, reeling under the dictatorship of Salazar. It was time to move-on. After a short stint with his uncle in Argentina, he finally emigrated to Uruguay in 1946.

Fluent in five languages, Alfredo gradually established himself as an manufacturers' agent and has specialised in Chemical Engineering. He founded his own plastic industry in 1970 and served as vice-president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Industries from 1978 to 1984 . After a successful career as a businessman, he retired in 1991, to allow him to enjoy his other passions , traveling and writing. He has published a book titled "Columbus" (Carlton Press Corp.) and is presently writing another entitled "Memoirs of Goa" .

Alfredo is married to Emilia Sella Regianni, who is a CPA. They have a daughter Gioia (16). He has four children from a previous marriage; Lilian (46), Doctor of German Literature and Professional Photographer in Hawaii, Yvonne(42), Industry Executive in France, Sonia(39), High School teacher in Germany and Alex (35), who manages Alfredo's Industries in Uruguay. Alfredo, Emila and Gioia live in Montevideo, Uruguay.

January 1999

Since this biography was written, Alfredo has published a second version of his book on "Columbus". The book is called The Real Colon and is available at all fine book stores in the US.

July 2002

Alfredo de Melo's  Sketchpad