The papers of the late Notary Vincenzo Maria Pellegrini (1911-1997) are now to be found at the National Archives in Rabat. Among these papers, there is a rare document with the reference code PDE_0029-016-03-021. It is a printed menu inserted into an elegant deckle-edged thick board, and tied together with a white and red ribbon, which bears the title “Complimentary Luncheon given by the Members of the Ladies Imperial Club to The Hon. Mrs H. de Trafford held at the Imperial Ladies Club on Tuesday 9 April 1929”. The luncheon was possibly held to welcome Lady Cecilia Victoria de Trafford after arriving from London where she had lived since her marriage in 1927.

Cecilia Victoria Strickland (1897-1950), the second daughter of Sir Gerald Strickland, married Captain Hubert Edmond de Trafford (1893-1974) at the Brompton Oratory in London on October 18, 1927. Cardinal Bourne, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated the ceremony. One of her wedding presents was a large silver tray given to her by the Imperial Ladies Club at Malta. Another interesting wedding present was a silver model of a Gozo boat with the inscription “A souvenir by the people of Gozo to the noble Cecilia Strickland as a token of her swimming from Gozo to Malta”. It is worth mentioning, however, that when she and her friend had arrived in Gozo near Mġarr Harbour, they were told that they could not land as they were indecently dressed.

The inside page-spread consists of a list of the names of the guests participating in the dinner on the left-hand side, and, on the right-hand side, the menu that was to be served. The six-course meal consisted of hors d’oeuvre for starters, a main course with a choice of either fish, lamb or capon, and finishing with trifle, savoury fromage, dessert and coffee. The fish that is listed as dental, would be dentici, or snapper.

The invitees

Worthy of note are the names of the invitees as they give an indication of the class of ladies who formed part of this society, and that they were pro-British and pro-Empire. As expected, their political leanings were more towards the Constitutional Party of Lord Gerald Strickland. Heading the list of guests were Lady Strickland, the Countess of Harrowby, and the Hon. Mabel Strickland.

The Ladies Imperial Club

The Ladies Imperial Club was inaugurated on January 6, 1927, by Lady Margaret Hulton Strickland, the second wife of Lord Gerald Strickland. During the inauguration, she presented the spacious new premises to be used as the club. The opening ceremony was attended by Count Sir Gerald Strickland and Lady Congreve, wife of Sir Walter Congreve, Governor of Malta. The premises were blessed by Mgr Paolo Gauci, assisted by the Rev. G. Camilleri. Before declaring the premises open, Lady Strickland thanked Lady Congreve for her presence and augured all the best for the future of the club as a means “to facilitate social intercourse between the ladies of the King’s dominion”. In her speech, she promised that the club would become a real live force for the good of the island and that all the British who came to Malta would find in the club the same genuine friendship and hospitality that she had found when she had come to Malta three months earlier. The club’s motto was “Each for all and all for each”, and the location and the amenities offered were an ideal place “as an everyday meeting place to exchange ideas and discuss mutual interests”. It even boasted of a telephone. A committee had been formed and a statute had been prepared. Unfortunately, to date, neither the names of all the committee members nor the statute have been traced.

According to a report in The Daily Malta Chronicle of January 8, 1927, the Ladies Imperial Club was “well-founded with a programme that will lead from strength to strength. Lady Strickland is loved in Malta not because she is a lady of high birth and station but because she is a woman, has a woman’s tenderness, a woman’s love and a woman’s far-sighted knowledge of how to soothe the cuts and bruises this world suffers in its daily round.” The club was based on English ladies' clubs that catered for strong independent women who were interested in intellectual, social and political affairs.

Better educated than men

It is interesting to note that on the next page of the same newspaper, under the heading ‘Ladies in politics’, a correspondent, signing ‘Constitutional’, writes that the opening of the club marked a great step forward in the political life of Malta. Under self-government, women pay taxes and “they are on average, better educated than men, they have more time to think and they often do all the useful thinking of the family, they are practical, and they seek and follow truly with less prejudice”. As to the future: “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”; “boys will be what their mothers make them”. He then proceeds to heavily criticise the Mizzian party, accusing them of wanting to keep the people in ignorance and “fomenting prejudice against England and hostility towards Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, sport, social intercourse and familiar hospitality”. He mocked the fact that notwithstanding the disparaging remarks written in their newspaper, the “Mizzian ladies were conspicuous at the opening of the new Mizzian club in Strada Forni: having failed to stop ladies’ clubs by vituperation, the English haters are driven to inferior imitations”.

Group photo

A group photo exists in a private collection which must have been taken on the roof of the club’s premises, most probably on the day of the inauguration. On the cardboard backing of the photo, there is a note written in pencil: “Ladies Imperial Club Constitutional 1927”. The premises were situated in Kingsway, now Republic Street, corner with Archbishop’s Street, which until recently used to be the Bologna Restaurant. The club was often used to celebrate the visits of important people. The luncheon held in 1929, mentioned earlier, was one of them.

Carnet du Bal

In the Marquis de Piro archives, there is a rare carnet du bal, or dance card, of a Christmas ball organised by the Ladies Imperial Club on December 27, 1927. The card was meant to be filled by a woman’s prospective partners with whom she intended to dance, against a list of dance titles, as we see illustrated. Usually they have a decorative cover, which is not the case here, and a decorative cord, which is now missing, which would be attached to the lady’s wrist or gown. One may wonder whether this card was a spare copy or whether the lady simply refused to dance with anyone.

In 1928, on the feast of the Three Kings, or Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6, Lord and Lady Strickland were also invited for lunch by the Ladies Imperial Club to celebrate the first anniversary of their foundation, and were afterwards entertained again at the Constitutional Club further up the road in Kingsway, Valletta. A garden party was also organised at Villa Bologna and in the archives at Villa Bologna, there is a rare movie of the guests seen arriving at the party.

Lady Margaret Hulton Strickland

Lord Gerald Strickland’s second wife was Lady Margaret Hulton, whom he married on August 31, 1926. She was the daughter of the British newspaper proprietor Edward Hulton. There was no issue from the marriage. Besides the Ladies Imperial Club, she had also founded in Malta the Catholic St Edward’s College and endowed it with a gift of £100,000, and £5,000 each year to cover the running expenses. The trustees of the gift were Mrs Amery, Cardinal Bourne and the Governor of Malta. However, the archbishop had refused to bless the Catholic college.

This endowment to St Edward’s College was celebrated at the Imperial Ladies Club which gave a reception on November 19, 1928. “The announcement was received with great pleasure, and Lord and Lady Strickland were mobbed on leaving the club. Thousands of people gave them a great ovation.” Lady Strickland had also built the Hotel Phoenicia in Floriana. Together with Mabel Strickland, Sir Gerald’s daughter from his first marriage, she founded the newspaper group, Allied Newspapers Ltd.

Lord Strickland

Lord Gerald Strickland was born in Valletta on May 24, 1861. He started his political career quite young and, at the age of 28, he was elected to the Council of Government. After a spate as governor in the West Indies and Australia, he returned to Malta and founded the Anglo-Maltese Party in 1921, after which it merged with the Maltese Constitutional Party. In 1924, he also won a seat in the House of Commons in England.

After clashing with the ecclesiastical authorities, on  May 1, 1930, Mgr Mauro Caruana, titular Archbishop of Rhodes and Bishop of Malta, together with Mgr Michael Gonzi, Bishop of Gozo, issued a pastoral letter, to be read in all the churches of Malta and Gozo. In it, Archbishop Caruana and Bishop Gonzi declared that whoever voted for the Constitutional Party and its former coalition partner, the Labour Party, committed a mortal sin. This pastoral letter infuriated Sir Gerald Strickland. Being also a member of the British Parliament, he gave an impassioned speech at the Houses of Parliament in London, asking whether the action of the Maltese ecclesiastics had been ordered from Rome.

He said that the action of “the ecclesiastical authorities in Malta is prejudicial to the Imperial connection, and goes beyond the ambit of Maltese politics. Lady Strickland has founded in Malta a Catholic college which the Archbishop has refused to bless, and also a Ladies Imperial Club, fundamentally non-political, and open to ladies connected with the Imperial Services. I feel sure that your Lordships’ House will be amazed to hear that the sacraments of the Church have been refused to ladies who belong to the Ladies Imperial Club in Malta. May I remind your Lordships that in Malta, ladies have no votes, and, therefore, this aggression against the Ladies Imperial Club has the aspect of aggression against the Imperial sentiments of those who uphold British supremacy and culture in that very important British place of arms. At the same time, Italian money is being spent to obtain possession of premises adjacent to the Ladies Imperial Club in Malta and to organise in such premises a centre of pro-Italian propaganda, Giovani Italia.” (Hansard 1803–2005).

It would have been assumed that given the political situation of the time and the fact that the archbishop had refused the sacraments to the members of the Ladies Imperial Club, the demise of the club would have been the inevitable consequence. But apparently, the lady members proved to be of more mettle and resilience than had been anticipated.

A framed letter signed by H.R.H. George, the Duke of Kent, came up for auction recently and is now in the author’s collection. The letter was addressed to Miss Dolores Debono and dated December 14, 1935, where the duke is thanking the Ladies Imperial Circle for the painting of Prince George which they had commissioned as a gift to him on his wedding to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, which took place on November 29, 1934, at Westminster Abbey. The painting may have been commissioned to Edward Caruana Dingli. This letter had been preceded by a letter of apology from John Lowthers, the private secretary of the duke, dated November 25, 1935, almost a full year after the marriage ceremony, where it is regretted that no acknowledgement had been sent because the portrait was stored temporarily until the duke had hung the portrait “in its allotted position” – a very flimsy excuse if there was ever one. But, from these two letters, we learn that Miss Dolores Debono was the honorary secretary of the committee of the Ladies Imperial Club and that Marchioness Agnes Testaferrata Bonici was the vice-president.

In 1940, Lord Lloyd received a letter from Lady Strickland asking whether it would be possible to “amalgamate” or absorb her Ladies Imperial Club with the British Institute if the club had to be closed. He answered that it would not be possible for a public-funded institution to amalgamate with a private club, but he offered to accept as members all the present members of her club. This request shows that by 1940, the Ladies Imperial Club had come to the end of its journey.

 

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Charles Farrugia, Peter Calascione, Jeremy Debono, Jasper de Trafford, Christopher Grech, Marquis de Piro and Louis Sant Cassia for their invaluable help in the writing of this article. The author welcomes any further information from readers which may have a connection with the Ladies Imperial Club. He can be reached at josephschiro60@gmail.com.