Some Maltese histories of the police force may give the impression that an organised constabulary only started in Malta in 1813, thanks to Sir Thomas Maitland. A vacuum of authority, before Britain annexed Malta? Was pre-Maitland Malta boringly law-abiding or was it entirely lawless?
Policemen cordoning off Castille Square during the April 1958 political disturbances.It was neither. under the Order of St John, the island had its own quite efficient law and order organisation, from the Gran Visconte to the Castellano down to the lowly sbirri and pjantuni.
Police crowd control opposite St John’s religious event. In the background, the first National Museum
The Senglea police station in the 1920s
Those old tried-and-tested systems have so far not been researched enough.
Police officers stand on guard during the George Cross award, April 1942.Our knowledge of them proves deficient, rather than the systems themselves. Maitland, a new broom, took it upon himself to overhaul the pre-existing continental-style organisation to turn it to a British-type one, and what we have today owes much to his reforms.
A police station operating from the ruins of the Royal Opera House during the war.Police forces worldwide often find themselves targets of criticism or praise, of affection or revulsion.
The Sliema police station after a direct hit in WWIIIn Malta, some, no doubt unfairly, rate the force as driven with the weak but switching off their hearing aid and rather amnesiac where the powerful are concerned. My 20th-century image display will not attempt to record a potted history of the police force through solemn, formal camera work.
Wartime distribution of gas masks at police stationsI have selected rare, telling or unknown photographs. See police officers distributing wartime gas masks, sealing the Castille area during the 1958 popular disturbances, as guards of honour during the solemn presentation of the George Cross in 1942, attending the two of the largest national funerals ever, that of Mgr Enrico Dandria in 1933 and of prime minister Enrico Mizzi in 1950, directing traffic from a podium in the Portes des Bombes junction, innocent of cars.
Police contingents take part in the funeral of Mgr Enrico Dandria in 1933.
Police officers during the installation of Mgr Mikiel Gonzi as bishop of Gozo.
One very early postcard shows officers on police duty – arresting a boy for swimming in the nude.
A very early postcard showing policemen arresting a boy swimming in the nude.All images from the author’s collections.
A policeman directing traffic in a car-free Portes des Bombes area.
A rare 1910s Gozo postcard by Mikiel Farrugia of a policeman (or is it a postman?) on the road from Victoria to Żebbuġ.
A Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar postcard of the Buskett Imnarja, 1920s, showing a police officer.