It was an otherwise normal day in May 1992 when Connie Smith’s home phone rang – and she was invited to board the HMS Britannia to meet Queen Elizabeth in Malta.
The queen was visiting the island and wished to meet the members of staff who worked at Villa Guardamangia, the place she called home between 1949 and 1951 in her early years of marriage.
Back then, when the phone rang, Connie was preparing to accompany her husband, Charles, to the UK for cancer treatment. Little did she know that the brief reunion she would have with the queen, aboard the Britannia, would result in the Queen paying for her three-month lodging while her husband recovered in hospital.
Connie, née Cauchi, was 15 years old when she worked at Villa Guardamangia, recounts her daughter Josephine Micallef Smith.
“Her mother was a widow, so she worked to earn money to help out,” adds Josephine, who was brought up hearing her mother talk about the beauty of the villa.
Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh spent the first years of their marriage, between 1949 and 1951, living at the villa when the duke served in the Royal Navy and was stationed in Malta. Elizabeth, who would go on to become queen, died last Thursday, aged 96.
A teenage Connie would help with the housekeeping, placing fresh flowers around the villa’s majestic rooms and helping with the dusting and cleaning.
Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh spent the first years of their marriage, between 1949 and 1951, living at the villa when the duke served in the Royal Navy and was stationed in Malta
“She told us that the queen would speak about how much she loved being in Malta,” Josephine recounts.
In 1951, Elizabeth left Malta and was proclaimed queen in 1952 on the death of her father King George VI – who a decade earlier had awarded Malta the George Cross for its service during the war.
After that, the queen and her husband visited the island several times. Their first state visit was in 1954, about a year after the queen’s coronation. Other state visits followed in 1967, 1992, 2005, 2007 and 2015.
Connie stopped working at the villa when the queen left in 1951 and eventually went on to marry British national Charles Smith and have three children.
Throughout the years, she received a Christmas Card from Buckingham Palace, a reminder that the queen still remembered the people of the villa.
This was confirmed years later. Connie’s husband was diagnosed with a brain tumour in his 30s and had to travel to the UK for treatment several times.
In May 1992, the family were preparing for his fourth operation in the UK.
That was when Connie received the phone call inviting her on the HMS Britannia during her third visit since becoming queen.
On May 28, 1992, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip sailed into Grand Harbour on board the Britannia. According to Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty was “delighted to be back” in Malta because of her close personal and official association with the country. Malta is the only country outside Britain where the Queen has lived.
Thousands of Maltese lined the bastions – decorated with large Maltese flags – to welcome their former sovereign whom they had last seen in Malta 25 years earlier.
My mother told the queen that my father would be heading to the UK for three months’ treatment… The queen paid for my mother’s lodging at the Franciscan Sisters- Connie's daughter Josephine
Connie was also filled with anticipation.
“She was very excited. I remember we dropped her off there. She looked so nice all dressed up with make-up. She later told us they were not allowed to take photos. But while there, she spoke with the queen. My mother told the queen that my father would be heading to the UK for three months’ treatment… The queen paid for my mother’s lodging at the Franciscan Sisters,” Josephine recalls, with gratitude.
Time passed and in 1996, Josephine accompanied her father to the UK for another round of treatment, but her father lost his battle.
In 2012, her mother passed away and Josephine felt she should inform Buckingham Palace. She sent a memorial card and later received a letter of condolences.
“My mother was very proud to have worked for Queen Elizabeth… The queen was so down to earth. The very fact she wanted to meet her staff says it all,” she says.