Much is known and has been written about Malta’s first Governor, Sir Thomas Maitland (1760-1824), who was appointed to these islands in July 1813, and who, two-and-a-half years later, in December 1815, was also appointed Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. This latter appointment necessitated frequent and protracted absences from Malta during which the administration of these islands devolved upon the lieutenant governor, who from 1819 until 1825, was Sir Manley Power (1773-1826).

Hon. Edgar Bonavia, CMG, unknown photographer. Author’s collection

Maitland’s absences varied in length from anywhere between two to four months; however, for the 19 months between February 1820 and September 1821, the government of Malta fell on Power’s shoulders for all but 10 days of that period. Even though Power governed Malta diligently during his master’s absences, he is barely remembered in Malta today; Power garners no mention in either A.V. Laferla’s detailed two-volume British Malta, 1947, or in Albert E. Abela’s authoritative Governors of Malta, 1991. This article attempts to better inform the public of Sir Manley Power’s professional achievements as well as his family’s connections to Malta.

In the course of researching Power’s involvement in Malta, valuable information was discovered at the Hereford County Archives, UK, in particular, notes compiled in 1911 for the Power family by the Hon. Edgard Bonavia, CMG, assistant secretary to the Government of Malta.

Sir Manley Power was born in 1773 and led an active military career, experiencing actions in Nova Scotia (1795-7), the Netherlands (1799), Minorca (1800), and, in 1801, with Sir Ralph Abercromby’s expedition to Egypt – including at least one visit to Malta. He later took part in the Peninsular War, where he commanded a Portuguese brigade at the battles of Vittoria, Nivelle and Orthes. Power’s gifts as an administrator were recognised at the end of the Napoleonic Wars when the Duke of Wellington appointed him to lead the 2nd Brigade as part of the British army occupying Flanders and France.

Kingsmill Manley Power, unknown artist. Courtesy of Herefordshire Archive Service

In general orders of October 1819, it was announced that Power was to “serve on the staff of the Army serving in the Mediterranean” and that he would “assume the command of [the Garrison on] the Island of Malta and its Dependencies”.

Sir Manley Power arrived in Malta on board HMS Glasgow on October 4, 1819, together with Sir Thomas Maitland, who was returning from a visit to England. We can get a very good idea of Power’s features at this time as well as his military achievements through the miniature portrait painted in 1818 by the acclaimed British miniaturist Charles Jagger (1770-1827) just a year before his arrival in Malta.

There is nothing of the seasoned warrior in this portrait; the genial sitter smiles benignly at the viewer. The general’s gentle, almost youthful features are starkly juxtaposed by the colour and sparkle of the testaments of bravery that adorn his chest. Most prominent, in the centre, is the Army Gold Cross and clasp (Peninsular War) hanging from its blue-edged crimson neck ribbon; to the right is the eight-pointed cross of the neck badge of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath; to the left the equivalent of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. On his upper left breast is the Star of a Knight Commander of the Bath, and below it, that of Knight Commander of the Order of the Tower and Sword, the latter awarded for his services in command of the Portuguese.

Even though Power governed Malta diligently during his master’s absences, he is barely remembered in Malta today

The following are some of the principal events in which Power was involved while in Malta:

It fell to Power to issue a notice on March 4, 1820, announcing King George III’s death and the ensuing three months’ mourning. A few days later, he issued a minute announcing the solemnities and ceremonies for the proclamation of the new King, George IV. On March 9, 1820, Sir Manley Power, the constituted authorities and the principal civil officers, all took the oath of allegiance to George IV.

Major-General Sir Manley Power, by Charles Jagger. Author’s collection

Although Maitland spent a great deal of time in Corfu, it was in Malta that he fell ill and died unexpectedly on January 17, 1824. Power was summoned to the governor’s deathbed and stayed with him until his death. It subsequently fell to Power to proclaim Maitland’s demise and to assume the government ad interim until His Majesty’s pleasure be known.

It was Power who acted as host to welcome the new governor, the marquis, and wife, the Marchioness of Hastings, on their arrival in Malta and at the magnificent ball given in their honour at the Palace on June 10, 1824.

Power relinquished his appointment as lieutenant governor on December 1, 1825. A few days earlier, at a ceremony in his honour, Sir Frederick Hankey, chief secretary to government, acknowledged the kind and considerate conduct Power demonstrated during the repeated occasions, as general officer commanding the garrison, he acted as governor “altogether comprising by much the greater portion of the six years during which you have resided among us”.

In his reply, Power concluded by saying: “I feel extremely grateful, gentlemen, with the expressions of regret at my departure... and also with the compliment you have been pleased to pay me as a soldier, as well as in my civil capacity while exercising the functions of lieutenant governor.”

We should now turn to Power’s family, and in doing so, add a postscript to Dr Albert Ganado’s recent informative article on Sa Maison ‘The true origin of the Sa Maison house and garden’, February 7, 2021.

In June 1802, Power married Sarah Coulson and they had three daughters and a son, also named Manley (1803-1857). After his first wife died, Power married, in 1818, Anne, daughter of Kingsmill Evans, a colonel in the Grenadier Guards, and they had two sons and a daughter. Their eldest son, Kingsmill Manley Power (1819-1881), followed his father into the Army and saw service in India. The second son, Henry Bolton Power, was born in 1820; their daughter, Anne Katherine, was born 1823.

In his article, Dr Ganado wrote that one could assume that as Layard’s successor, Power and his family lived at Sa Maison and that both of his sons were born there. My research confirms the former but disputes the latter assumption.

Two sources confirm that Power lived at Sa Maison: one is the anonymous travel diary of a young lady who travelled from England to Malta in 1822 to visit her Dalzel relatives on the island. For August 19, she recorded: “After dinner we went to see Sans [sic] Maison, a very pretty place belonging to Sir Manly [sic] Power. The gardens are very pretty.” Thus this reference demonstrates that by August 1822, Power was living at Sa Maison.

Furthermore, Power’s daughter Anne Katherine, who was born at Cavendish Crescent, Bath, in late December 1823, is recorded, according to the very informative Malta RAMC website, as having died at Sa Maison on June 29, 1825, aged just 18 months and 13 days. This tragic event is a confirmation of the family’s link to Sa Maison.

As to the birth of Sir Manley and Lady Power’s children in Malta, there appears to be some confusion; this is most likely the result of some reasonable, yet mistaken, assumptions. Power was appointed lieutenant governor in 1819, and since Kingsmill Manley Power is recorded as having been born in the same year, there might have been an assumption that his birth took place in Malta. However, the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette announces that Lady Power gave birth to a son in the city of Bath on Wednesday, March 17, 1819. There is little likelihood of there being another Power birth that year.

In retrospect, it appears that Sir Manley Power’s travels on the continent were portentous

As recorded above, Sir Manley Power arrived in Malta in November 1819. On January 6, 1820, the Sun newspaper quotes an extract from a letter from Malta complaining that: “We are now without admiral, governor, or lieutenant-governor. Gen. Layard was superseded, in the beginning of October, by Sir Manley Power, who immediately got leave of absence and went to France to fetch his lady, and is not yet returned.”

Admiral Sir Manley Laurence Power, unknown photographer. Author’s collection

What seems likely is that after having arrived in Malta unaccompanied by his family, Power travelled to France to help his wife travel to Malta by overland route. She must have had the nine- or 10-month-old Kingsmill in tow, and so the father, that benign soul we encountered in the miniature portrait, must have wanted to assist his wife on her travels.

In retrospect, it appears that Sir Manley Power’s travels on the continent were portentous. When Power’s tour of duty in Malta came to an end in 1826, he and his family returned to England by overland route. We don’t know whether this mode of travel demonstrated Lady Power’s dislike of long maritime journeys or whether the family preferred a more scenic overland route; nevertheless, tragedy struck at Berne in Switzerland. The Malta Government Gazette of August 30 reports that Power was taking an after-dinner drive with his wife when all of a sudden he complained of violent internal pain which shortly subsided. The couple returned to their lodgings immediately and as a warm bath was being prepared for him, the hapless general quietly breathed his last. He was just 53 years old. Power was buried in Berne, although a memorial is to be found in Bath Cathedral.

For later links with Malta, we return, appropriately enough, to Henry Bolton Power, who was born in Malta on October 7, 1820. Henry did not take up a military career; instead, he followed the religious life, serving as vicar of Bramley in Surrey for 35 years. After he died in 1882, his obituaries extolled his generosity and urbane disposition; he was greatly admired as a preacher and loved as a pastor.

Governor Sir Thomas Maitland, unknown artist. Author’s collection

It is the Rev. Power’s grandson who brings us back to Malta and the Mediterranean. One of Henry’s sons was Admiral Sir Laurence Eliot Power (1864-1927); he, in turn, had a son who took to the seas and rose to equally elevated heights. This was Admiral Sir Manley Laurence Power (1904-1981). In September 1942, the latter was appointed staff officer (Operations) in the Mediterranean, and was involved in the preparations for the invasion of North Africa, and later, as staff officer (Plans), was on the staff of the commander-in-chief, Mediterranean, in January 1943, assisting in the planning of the invasion of Sicily. In May 1952, he served as chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean (Admiral Lord Mountbatten of Burma).

It is hoped that this article shines a fleeting light on a much-forgotten lieutenant governor and prompts a welcome recollection from those among us who remember his namesake, Admiral Sir Manley Laurence Power.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable assistance provided by the staff at Hereford County Archives as well as the ever-present inspiration of Dr Albert Ganado in the preparation of this article.