British Army Murals at the Main Guard 

by Denis Darmanin and Daniel Cilia

published by Heritage Malta, 2025

In 1799, the British Army, represented by the 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment and the 89th Regiment of Foot, arrived in Malta to support Maltese insurgents against French occupiers. From then on, the British Army played an active role in Malta, leaving a legacy of forts, barracks, military establishments and memorials across the islands.

The Main Guard in Valletta, a Grade 1 National Monument originally built by the Order of St John, stands as a unique testament to this presence: from 1814 it housed British soldiers who, in their leisure time, decorated the Officers’ Mess Hall with series of wall paintings.

The book's cover

These, currently being restored by Heritage Malta, are the subject of a new book, British Army Murals at the Main Guard, by Denis Darmanin with photographs by Daniel Cilia.

The gorgeous photograph on the cover shows a mural in which a helmeted officer in vibrant red and blue late 19th-century uniform rushes out of a golden stone archway and down some stairs. Positioned on a half landing, he appears to be barrelling towards oncoming visitors with his sword drawn, a trompe l’oeil effect that startles and amuses anyone climbing the staircase.

One of the wall paintings.

“There was a local belief that this painting originated because the officer had tripped while rushing, fell on his sword and was either badly wounded or died,” explains Darmanin, although no formal record of this event has been found.

Darmanin explains how he was fascinated by the building of the Main Guard and its use by the British Army since his childhood when he would accompany his father to Valletta from Vittoriosa on the old ferry launches. One of his early memories is watching sentries standing ‘at ease’ or marching in front of the Main Guard’s portico, at the ‘changing of the guard’, or when there was a military band or parade.

These paintings are currently being restored by Heritage Malta.

Many years later, as a member of the Heritage Management Unit within the then Malta Environment and Planning Authority, it was part of Darmanin’s role to monitor works in heritage properties: while Heritage Malta was conducting a preliminary restoration trial on these paintings during 2008, he was delighted to be asked to visit and report on progress.

Heritage Malta began more intensive restoration in 2019, and as these works have continued, Darmanin has explored both the connection of the building to the country’s military past and what the Main Guard’s paintings represent with reference to Anglo-Maltese military history and military heraldry.

Soldiers and other personalities are among the themes of the paintings.

He begins with a deep dive into the origins of the building itself, with gorgeous illustrations mostly drawn from private collections, one drawn by Darmanin himself, a series of old photos, and a floor plan. Together the main upstairs room and the smaller adjacent rooms boast hundreds of wall paintings dating back to the British Army’s time here.

The book includes a wonderful variety of these ranging from pictures and drawings depicting the military badges of a wide array of regiments, Regimental Colours including those of the King’s Own Malta Regiment (measuring over two by three metres), and brilliant characters and caricatures.

Another of the paintings executed by British soldiers.

These include soldiers, prime ministers past, an elegant blonde lady and a couple of busty beach babes in period dress. Other paintings tell the tale of events. For example, the largest painting in the hall, The Nile 1884-5, depicts a British mission to relieve a Major-General from Khartoum in Sudan as locals look upon the riverside scene from their dwellings among palm trees.

Elsewhere, there are ships, devils and dogs; charging camels; priests and women wearing an għonnella. Look out too for a “man deciding which is the lesser of two evils, a tiger or a snake”; and a weird imaginary animal, the ‘Buza’. This is a play on ‘Boozer’, the English slang for a drunkard, a four-legged animal with fingers for toes and a distorted human face.

A weird imaginary animal, the ‘Buza’, the subject of one of the paintings.

Its body doubles up as a carrier for drink bottles while his long tail holds a bottle from which the creature is drinking. And last but not least, a particular favourite of mine is a prehistoric car driven by a wolf, an example of the rich humour found throughout these pages.

British Army Murals At The Main Guard by Denis Darmanin is available from Heritage Malta. Tickets for the book launch event on March 7 are available from here.