Dominic "Dom" Mintoff (Maltese: Duminku Mintoff; sometimes called il-Perit, "the Architect"; 6 August 1916 – 20 August 2012) was a Maltese politician, journalist, and architect who was leader of the Labour Party from 1949 to 1984, and was Prime Minister of Malta from 1955 to 1958, when Malta was still a British colony, and again, following independence, from 1971 to 1984.