Like many others, I was delighted with the news of the restoration of the 18th century Lunette painting depicting The Visitation scene at the chapel of the beheading of St John in Siġġiewi.

As a person who holds dear heritage and national treasures, I support all professional restoration works that safeguard our patrimony and which will be enjoyed by future generations.

Recently, other to the restoration of the built-up heritage, there have been numerous others that involved paintings and murals in both churches and state property.

However, I find it painful that no one has bothered to consider restoring the British military murals within the former Main Guard in Valletta. These murals, which in their own way recall and depict the lineage of many British and colonial regiments while in Malta either in a heraldic mode or at times by just a caricature, have suffered much throughout the years. According to some sources, it is reputed that these murals were last restored by none other than Emvin Cremona when in uniform.

These walls have had scantlings nailed to them, been boarded up and allowed to dampen, have been chipped and damaged by the widening or opening of doorways and suffered other forms of defacing.

In the past, this fine building had housed the Guardia del Corpo del Gran Maestro, detachments from so many British regiments stationed in Malta that served as guards to the Governor and the Palace, including the two Maltese regiments: the Royal Malta Artillery and the King’s Own Malta Regiment, the latter even having their Officers’ Mess in the same hall.

So far, this hall and murals have not been mentioned as being included in any restoration programme, which leads me to believe that we’re once again concentrating our efforts on that which was left to us by the Order of St John and ignoring what was left by the British, which is still a major part of our history.