One hundred years since photos were first included in Maltese passports Leonard Callus sifts through the yellowing documents at the National Archives of Malta to get a snapshot of life a century ago.
Wearing an ill-fitted waistcoat over a shabby shirt, Salvatore Portelli looks suspiciously at the camera as he poses for the very first passport photo on January 13, 1915.
The 25-year-old general labourer from Għarb had his application signed by the archpriest and Mr Portelli’s signature is an unsteady cross, indicating the man’s illiteracy and background.
Inexplicably, six months had to pass for the next photo to be included in a passport application in Malta. By June 1915 photos became a compulsory component of this travelling document.
Although the first Maltese passport was issued on Independence Day in 1964, the National Archives of Malta in Rabat hold hundreds of thousands of passport applications dating back to 1870.
The oldest surviving passport application at the archives is dated April 23, 1870, and was issued to Giovanni Mifsud from Valletta who was travelling to Benghazi.
But passports are much older. The concept of being under one ruler’s protection, while in the land of another, existed, at least, since biblical times.
Politician and Times of Malta owner Mabel Strickland’s passport.
Since the early 19th century the Maltese used the British passport. The Privy Council granted passports up to 1794 when the Office of the Secretary of State took over issuing passports; a function still retained by the Home Office. In 1858 the passport acquired its role as a British identity document and since then the language switched from French to English.
While other countries, including France and the US, were increasingly adding holders’ physical descriptions on passports, such as height and eye colour, the British government resisted developments described by then Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston as “degrading and offensive”.
He “didn’t want British people being perused by foreigners,” according to Martin Lloyd, author of The Passport: The History of Man’s Most Travelled Document.
This situation prevailed until the beginning of World War I when security considerations gained the upper hand.
In the early weeks of the war, German naval reserve officer Carl Hans Lody was arrested on suspicion of spying for Germany using a fake US passport. He was found guilty and executed at the Tower of London on November 6, 1914.
The existing concerns about the lack of a photograph and physical description on passports increased following Lody’s capture and execution. This led to the enactment of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act of 1914, which came into force on January 1, 1915 making it compulsory to have a photo and a personal description on passports.
The passport application form for the Maltese, as British subjects, was redesigned and from June 1, 1915 a photo had to start being included, together with the reason for travel; and information about the applicant’s particular features, such as height, colour of eyes and hair, shape of forehead, nose, mouth, chin, face, complexion of skin and any special features.
The application form had to include the maiden name and place of birth of married women (wife or widow) travelling on their own. Provision was also made for those born abroad, who derived their status as a British subject, from their father or paternal grandfather’s place of birth (Malta).
All of this led to the first modern British passport, which was also used in Malta, consisting of a single page, folded into eight, and held in cardboard cover.
The passport, valid for two years, included the holder’s photograph, signature, and personal description. At times it even included fingerprints.
Several changes and developments marked these years.
The Maltese changed their travel dynamics, destinations and motivations. Travel to certain former Mediterranean littoral destinations such as Corfu and Gibraltar, went down while trips to Tunis and Egypt continued.
After a botched attempt by 214 Maltese to settle in Australia in September 1916, no passports were issued for travel to this country between 1917 and 1920. There was a rush to the US between 1919 and 1921, until America introduced emigration quotas in the early 1920s.
Not all those seeking a passport were migrants. The reason for travel had to be indicated on the passport application, and besides emigration these included travelling to undergo an operation and for health reasons.
Some obtained a passport to study abroad, others sought to leave the island for business, other had their servants flown over, wives wanted to join their husbands or visit relatives, while others travelled to claim inheritance.
Travel as a holiday and for pleasure started to emerge around 1924. The main destinations were Italy and “the Continent”.
However, quite often applicants who enjoyed a higher standard of education refused to disclose their travel reasons adding the phrase “for private affairs”.