A banner for Queen Adelaide

Abstract

This account of the making of a banner of Queen Adelaide's coat of arms must inevitably be rather personal, but it turned out to be a project of considerable interest. Without Queen Adelaide it is doubtful whether the Anglican cathedral of St. Paul in Valletta, Malta, would never have been built. She had suffered a good deal from ill health and after her husband King William IV died in 1837 she made several journeys abroad in search of relief, spending a year in Malta in 1838 and 1839. When she arrived in Grand Harbour in H. M.S . Hastings, she was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm and excitement, and endeared herself to one and all. Malta had not been honoured with a royal visit since the fifteenth century. She was horrified to find there was no Church of England in the island and that the only place of worship for members of the Anglican community was a disused kitchen in the Governors' palace and for the troops a room was set aside every Sunday in the local jail. She wrote hurriedly to Queen Victoria (December 13, 1838) begging her to consider well this important subject and as head of the Church of England, to discuss it with the Archbishop and her ministers, offering to subscribe to any fund that might be started and saying she felt sure a considerable sum could be raised amongst the Protestants in the island.