Vanity Fair Governors

Abstract

The pair of historical articles on these pages mark the start of a short series of five articles by Christopher Grech that will feature the British Governors of Malta who enjoyed the (sometimes dubious) honour of being caricaturised by Vanity Fair magazine's resident artist. The, Governors to be featured are Sir Henry Storks (1864-67), Sir Lintorn Simmons (1884-1888), Sir Francis (later Baron) Grenfell (1899-1903), Baron Methuen (1915-1919) and Sir Herbert (later Viscount) Plumer (1919-1924). Storks was drawn by Carlo Pellegrini, who used the nom de crayon "Ape" (bee in Italian); the remainder by Sir Leslie Ward under the name of "Spy", which he claimed allowed him "to observe secretly, or to discover at a distance or in concealment".