Maurice Micallef-Eynaud: Malta during the British Period, 1800-1964 Governorship, Militaria, Commerce, Royalty, Visits, and Residence, Allied Publications, 2010, 148 pp.
Malta during the British Period brings together over 22 years of historical research about the British presence in Malta by Major Maurice Micallef Eynaud. He managed to complete it in book form a few months before his death on December 11, 2007, at the age of 85.
The book consists of 15 articles, many of which have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times and The Malta Independent, but which are here presented in a slightly fuller and revised format.
In some cases the contribution was re-written. Three of the articles first appeared in Treasures of Malta, while one first appeared in Vigilo, the organ of Din L-Art Ħelwa.
The century and a half of British presence has left an indelible mark on the island, adding new important layers to the original stock. Although it may seem fashionable today to decry our entire colonial heritage, it has to be understood that it too is part of our development.
While not straying onto hagiography, which is just as harmful, historians should seek a balanced assessment, keeping in mind that extreme views never contribute to the truth.
Micallef-Eynaud’s background makes him quite susceptible to a pro-British view, although he never sounds like an extreme imperialist. Anyway, as he says in his foreword, the book is more about people because, as he says, it is people rather than events or episodes that make history. Still, people have always to be viewed in the context of the circumstances of their lives.
The first paper deals with an ancestor of the author. Hyacinth Etienne Eynaud was a former royalist and a Valletta shipchandler, who was brutally murdered by a patrol from the Barriera Wharf on suspicion of being a crypto-revolutionary a couple of days before the arrival of Napoleon.
He had given shelter to some French citizens, for which he was bayoneted in front of his house in Nix Mangiaris steps in the presence of his wife and 10 children.
Eynaud’s son, Paul, who also had 10 children, is one of the characters in another paper on early contacts between the US and Malta. A Protestant, Paul was nominated US consul in 1830 and served for four years and then on-and-off until his death in 1840. He was buried at Ta’ Braxia where the Eynauds built an imposing marble monument which was severely damaged by bombings in 1942.
Indeed, another paper is about prominent people buried at this cemetery designed in 1855 by the 25-year-old Emmanuel L. Galizia, whose first commission in a luminous career it was.
Micallef-Eynaud limits himself “to those who, during the period of their residence in Malta, became renowned for their good relations with the Maltese”.
The Blackleys, whose factory would later rise just across the street from the cemetery, are buried there. The early Eynauds too rest there, as do the Hughes-Halletts, the Inghams, Giovanni Papaffy, four Poutatines, and Attilio Sceberras, among many others. Their place in our history is concisely described in the text.
Four British personalities are also treated. Charles MacIver, the founder of the Cunard Line, spent several winters here, where he also died and was initially buried.
Commodore Hughes-Hallett was a major figure in the Royal Navy and the building of a palace in Sliema contributed to making the small resort a fashionable place, while John Hookham Frere, diplomat and classical scholar, is best known for his interest in Maltese education and his friendship with Mikiel Anton Vassalli.
Another significant figure was Olof Fredrik Gollcher, the Swede who ‘jumped ship’ in 1848 to settle here and build a career in shipping, and whose work is still continued by his descendants.
Three British administrators are discussed in some detail. Sir Alexander Ball had become a bosom friend of Lord Nelson after he had bravely dared the elements to save Nelson’s ship in a tremendous gale.
The history books have generally been extremely kind to him and there are glowing references to him, not least the reference to his secretary Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who writes that in every almost house there was a picture of Ball next to holy images. He has also been called ‘the father of the Maltese’ – still, the paper contains no reference to Giovanni Bonello’s revisionist account that appeared a few years back.
Much more controversial was ‘King Tom’ Maitland who has found many more detractors than people to praise in spite of his efficiency in administering the island. The circumstances of his death are rather too coyly described by Micallef-Eynaud.
The third one is Sir William Dobbie, the governor of Malta during the first and some of the darkest days of the Second World War. A strict Plymouth Brother, Dobbie may not have all been to the liking of his superiors who valued strict discipline above Christian love. His devotion to his duty and the extremely trying conditions led to his exhaustion and his relief by Lord Gort in May 1942.
The month before, the king had awarded Malta the George Cross, which Gort brought over with him but Dobbie did not get to see.
Another paper deals with the XXIV International Eucharistic Congress which was held in Malta in 1913, while another one deals with the nursing contributions of the island, particularly in the First World War, while giving some interesting information about the National War Memorial and the controversy related to it.
The last two papers deal with visits of royal personalities to the island, including the Kaiser. The Siamese king, whose story would be recorded in The King and I, also almost made it in 1897.
Micallef-Eynaud’s book is full of pleasant anecdotes. Unfortunately the running titles do not refer to the title of the papers and thus it is a bit complicated to find particular papers when leafing rapidly through it, while the bibliographical information is presented in an idiosyncratic way.
The added bonus lies in the generous section of pictures which are presented in a separate section but would have been more useful if placed close to the text they refer to.