Faria (João Alfredo de)

He was born in the parish (freguesia) of Santo António, the son of José de Faria and Cláudia Matilde de Faria. He attended the Funchal lyceum (state secondary school) and had completed the infantry course of the former Army School. His military career, in which he truly distinguished himself as one of the most eminent officers in the army, was spent not only in the ranks and in the internal services of the barracks, but chiefly in the courts and senior departments. He had been called to these by his brilliant gifts of intelligence, by the proven competence he had shown in posts he had held before and by a remarkable and widely recognised integrity of character. He was public prosecutor in the military courts and a deputy in several legislatures. In these posts he proved a very fluent speaker, carefully correct in form and with a deep knowledge of the matters he dealt with. His easy, correct and incisive speech aroused particular interest in his audiences and was always heard with the most devoted esteem. In some celebrated cases in which he had to take part as public prosecutor, he delivered speeches that were judged true models of forensic eloquence. Since he was no specialist in financial matters, his appointment as Inspector-General of Taxes caused surprise. Yet he carried out this important commission with such proficiency that he drew spontaneous and fervent praise even from people hostile to the political regime then in power. The extensive report on this work, which he published in two volumes, was the subject of conflicting judgements in the press. But no one could deny the author of so valuable a work a conscientious and thorough study of the subject, the purest desire to serve his country well and the brilliance of a lofty mind, which that very document profoundly revealed. He had risen to the rank of general shortly before his death, which occurred on 24 January 1921.