In Malta, Freemasonry has been relentlessly shrouded in controversy and mystery. It first appears on the island in the early 18th century, secretly enlisting members from the knights of the Order and from the upwardly mobile bourgeoisie and merchant classes.

Group photo of a 1926 meeting in Malta of the International Organisation of Good Templars, a para-Masonic group which admitted women as members.

The German Balì Wolfgang Philip Guttenberg, now reputed to have been the pioneer founder on the strength of a lodge he built in Msida in 1730, had nothing in common with Freemasonry.

Group photo of the Unity Lodge no. 1206, in Malta, c. 1905

Poor Guttenberg was a devout churchgoer obsessed with spreading the cult of the Virgin Mary. He did build a ‘lodge’ in Msida but it was a hunting lodge, not a Masonic one!

Freemasonry has flourished in the island, to the extent that,  today, statistically there are more Freemasons in Malta per capita than anywhere else in the whole world. The two main streams of Freemasonry, the continental Grand Orient and the Scottish Rite, sometimes brothers, sometimes bitter rivals, both had their adepts in Malta. Not much is leaked about them. One of their guiding mottos reads: Audi. Vide. Taci. (Listen. Watch. Seal your lips).

Portrait of a Freemason in Malta, c. 1900. Photo: Richard Ellis

Portrait of a Freemason in Malta. c. 1890. Photo: Michele Zahra

Rumours of Maltese political leaders being Freemasons have left their mark in history. When Ettore Bono, a waiter known as Terinu, swore in 1927 that, years before, he had personally served Lord Strickland wearing the Masonic uniform during a dinner of the fraternity, all hell broke loose.

The episode enriched the Maltese language with a new word – terinata, for slanderous fake political news. Bono, a disreputable character, stuck to his story, even when promised to be spared jail if he retracted it.

Old portraits or group photographs of Freemasons in Malta in their regalia prove extremely difficult to come by.

An assembly of British Freemasons in Malta, 1910

Group photo of the United Brethren lodge no.1923, c. 1910, by the Grand Studio, Valletta

Group photo of the Unity Lodge no. 1206, in Malta, c. 1905

Here are some, mostly from my albums. I have never seen one of an early Maltese Freemason in uniform.

Col Marmedkle Ramsey wearing his grand master’s uniform in Malta c. 1880

Portrait of deputy grand master W. Watson taken in Malta c.1880

Portrait of grand master Sir John Fletcher Owen taken in Malta c. 1890