A heritage NGO has recreated the funeral monument of a 19th-century acting lieutenant governor lost to time, after spotting the monument intact in a lithograph.

Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna commissioned a one-to-one architectural model of the monument to Colonel Henry Anderson Morshead, who served for just 18 days as Malta’s acting lieutenant governor before dying in office on November 11, 1831.

Buried at the saluting battery just under the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, for many years Morshead’s grave lay in obscurity, with only the steps that served as a pedestal to the monument remaining a fixture at the site.

Mario Farrugia, CEO and chairman of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna, told Times of Malta that investigations into the grave started two years ago when the NGO invited University of Malta researchers to investigate the structure.

Not only did they discover that there was a grave at the site but that the coffin held within was still intact, Farrugia said.

While the identity of its inhabitant remained a mystery for some time, the answer finally came from a lithograph by Luigi Brockdorff, which apart from being the first clear depiction of the monument discovered, also included Morshead’s name printed visibly on the side.

Farrugia’s rigorous research into Morshead’s life has led to the fresh remembrance of fascinating anecdotes about his life. During his 18-day stint as acting lieutenant governor, he signed off the law that introduced the concept of trial by jury into the Maltese legal system.

Henry Anderson Morshead. Picture courtesy of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna

He conversely ended up being the only person holding the title of governor to die in office, 87 years to the day before Armistice Day.

Born in Kent in 1776, Morshead was a career military man and civil engineer, having become widely respected in his time for his long service in the Royal Engineers.

Morshead also had a connection to Sir Thomas Maitland, who saved his life in Santo Domingo during the Napoleonic Wars. He was one of only three men who survived an outbreak of yellow fever that caused the deaths of two entire companies, later joining Maitland’s staff and forming a life-long friendship.

PREPARED OWN FUNERAL

From October 1829 until his death, Morshead commanded the Royal Engineers in Malta, where he was responsible for two crucial studies which took an inventory of all the harbour and coastal fortifications.

Having suffered a debilitating stroke in June 1831 at the age 55, it was likely that Morshead was involved in his own funerary preparation, Farrugia said.

Correspondence indicates that he expressed the wish to be buried close to his friend Maitland, who had been laid to rest at the Upper Barrakka Gardens in 1824. However, space in the garden was limited and he ended up being buried in the closest place to Maitland they could fit him, the saluting battery.

The monument was still intact between 1947 and 1948

He was given a state funeral and was initially interred in a simple grave at the battery but sometime later, his wife Elizabeth commissioned the neoclassical sepulchral monument so that his memory might live on.

Completed in 1839, the designer of the monument remains a mystery, although evidence suggests it was designed by the Royal Engineers – possibly, Farrugia speculates, by Morshead himself. It was built by father and son duo Sigismondo and Ferdinando Dimech, who were part of the eminent Dimech family of sculptors.

Having survived two World Wars, photos of the battery suggest that the monument was still intact between 1947 and 1948; however, after that point, it vanished and evidence as to what happened to it is sparse, aside from some dismantled masonry that remained on site.

Farrugia postulates that, both from the state of the dismantled masonry and surviving photographs, the stone had become very weathered and was already looking very worse for wear. The Upper Barrakka, he said, was hit twice during World War II and although these were both near misses for the monument, the upheaval of the bombing could have further destabilised it, leading authorities to dismantle it.

REPLICA OF MONUMENT

After painstaking research, Farrugia and his team collated all the details that made it possible to construct the new architectural model, which is an exact replica of the original monument.

The damage caused to the monument by enemy bombing during World War II may have caused the authorities to dismantle it later. Picture courtesy of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna

After languishing in obscurity for many years, the model, which has been placed on top of Morshead’s grave, will be unveiled on November 11, 291 years after his death. His burial site will also be reconsecrated by a canon from the Anglican Church.

In a project partly financed by Bank of Valletta, Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna are looking to rebuild the monument in stone and restore the ceiling of the crypt, which is at risk of collapsing. This would finally complete the restoration of the saluting battery.

Farrugia is also finalising the publication of a new book about Morshead, the proceeds of which will go towards rebuilding the monument.