The year 2024 offers an excellent opportunity to commemorate some memorable centenaries. 

A few spring to mind, like Malta’s participation in the grand British Empire Exhibition, held in Wembley, London; the death of Malta’s most renowned photographer, Richard Ellis; and the popular rejoicings at the visit of the relic of St Francis Xavier.

‘Universal’ exhibitions had become the rage in various capitals in Europe and the US. At the end of World War I, Britain determined to promote one to beat all others: to showcase the unrivalled might of the British Empire.

London invited every dependent territory to take part. Except for Gambia and Gibraltar, all the other 56 accepted.

In Malta, excitement and preparations for this 1924 highlight reached fever levels.

The young architect Joseph Cachia Caruana won the competition for the design of the Malta pavilion, which he conceived as a walled fortress accessed through replicas of Mdina and Vittoriosa gates, leading to three large exhibition halls, one dedicated to prehistoric Malta, another to the island under the Order of St John and a third to promote local industry and tourism.

“The Malta pavilion and its contents attracted unqualified praise”

Other preliminary competitions determined which Malta entities would show their wares in the vast exhibition park in Wembley.

Seventeen million visitors crowded the grounds near London after the exhibition officially opened its doors on April 23, 1924. The Malta pavilion and its contents attracted unqualified praise.

A considerable number of postcards preserve the memory of the islands’ participation in this world event. The posters and cards especially commissioned by the organisers from Edward Caruana Dingli stand out, though the mural panels painted to illustrate the Neolithic period by his equally gifted brother-rival Robert have also withstood the test of time.