Most cultures recorded in history have developed their own, often elaborate, scripts for funerary rites. In the Christian tradition, this links with the basic tenet of faith that death introduces an afterlife, a step so fundamental for believers that a rich and theatrical ritual, a rite of passage, had to be created and tweaked over time – the solemn funeral au revoir as we know it today – a judicious mix of pathos and hope, of departure and reunion.

Firing the volley during a post-war military funeral in Malta.

Protocol reserves military funerals to members of the armed forces who died or were killed in the line of duty, a ritual common to navy, army and air force.

Part of the funeral of Flying Officer Lewis, killed in Ħal Far on January 29, 1925.

The coffin of Gunner Bradford, RMA, placed on a gun carriage in 1920.

The military funeral of Gunner J.S. Nowell, 5th Company, RGA, winds through the Maltese countryside, c. 1910.

The scenography differs from that observed in civilian burials. A flag usually drapes the coffin of the deceased and the mortal remains can be laid on a gun carriage instead of the usual hearse. Guards of honour add solemnity to the occasion. Rifles fire a loud volley pointing to the sky and military dirges weighten the atmosphere.

A remembrance card for Corporal W. Kidd of the Gordon Highlanders, who drowned in Malta on March 6, 1922.

The comrades of the deceased sometimes saw to the issue of postcards of the event, as a memento, the same way relatives of departed civilians still print and distribute remembrance santi tal-mejtin, to preserve in a tangible manner the memory of their loved ones.

"A judicious mix of pathos and hope, of departure and reunion"

A military funeral held at sea. Scene in Grand Harbour, 1920s.

Adequate visual records survive of military funerals in Malta, both of the religious ritual segment and of the civil pageant component, held for both Anglican and Roman Catholic members of the armed forces, mostly British and Commonwealth, and their burials in Protestant and Catholic cemeteries.

Flower wreaths presented by sailors for the funeral of Able Seaman Carnes, killed in Malta on November 2, 1919. Photo: Richard Ellis

I would single out the Pembroke, Mtarfa and Pietà military cemeteries and the Kalkara naval cemetery.

Both the Turkish communities and the Japanese navy in World War I established their exclusive burial grounds in Malta.

A solemn military funeral, Malta, 1920s

Funeral of a seamen at the Capuchin Naval Cemetery at Kalkara, 1920s. Photo: Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar

A multiple burial in Malta of military servicemen in the 1930s.

All images from the author’s collections.