The Malta Independent on Sunday
Mabel Strickland’s life celebrated on the 30th anniversary of her death
Ms Strickland’s nephew, Robert Strickland, and his wife Dee hosted a reception at Villa Parisio in Lija on 29 November to commemorate Ms Strickland’s death and celebrate her life.
Present were a number of distinguished guests including the British High Commissioner, the Australian High Commissioner, the Greek Ambassador and the German Ambassador, as well as numerous family and friends and board members of Allied Newspapers Ltd.
In his short commemorative speech Mr Strickland welcomed and thanked guests and pointed out that amongst those present there were some who knew Miss Strickland well and had acted as her editors and secretaries. ***
Mr Strickland pointed out that that evening we were celebrating ‘Aunt Mabel’s life.’ She was born in 1899 and died nearly ninety years later in 1988, in Villa Parisio, where she had lived the second half of her life. “Much has been written about my Aunt,” Mr Strickland said, pointing out that his aunt had lived in exciting times, grew up in Australia and retained a lasting fondness for it. Her father, Sir Gerald, was the colonial governor of three Australian states. “But all was not glamour in those early days and life could be very tough,” said Mr Strickland while telling guests that Mabel had lost her only two brothers and a sister in their infancy and when her mother also became ill with MS, her father returned to Malta with his family just as World War One was drawing to a close. “Sadly Mabel’s mother, Lady Edeline Sackville (whose portrait is in the dining room ahead of me) died shortly afterwards,” Mr Strickland told us. ***
Sir Gerald, and his five remaining daughters, then lived between his two homes reflecting both his Maltese and English roots – that is Villa Bologna in Malta (his mother’s home) and Sizergh Castle in England (his father’s home). Mr Strickland then touched upon Sir Gerald’s political career: “He started a career in politics both in the UK (where he was elected MP for Lancaster in 1924) and in Malta where he was the Leader of the Opposi- tion from the grant of self-government in 1921 until 1927 when he was elected Malta’s fourth Prime Minister pushing through some very progressive social legislation in coalition with the Malta Labour Party.”
Mr Strickland then reminded us that Sir Gerald had started publishing newspapers in 1921. “In 1928 he was created Lord Strickland and my great grandfather, is now commemorated by the statue in the centre of the Upper Barracca Gardens in Valletta and by a portrait in the dining room here. His mother Donna Louisa Bonici is celebrated in the portrait to my left.”
Whilst three of Mabel’s sisters married, Mabel, and her youngest sister Contie, never did. Mabel, instead, threw her energies into helping her father in his political career. However, at this time, she could not enter politics herself, “because women in Malta did not have the vote, still less the ability to stand for Parliament or lead a political party. Mabel was to change all of that but not until after the Second World War.” ***
Mabel’s father remarried in 1926 a wealthy English lady called Margaret Hulton who had newspaper connections through her brother. “Sir Gerald, his new wife and Mabel, founded the family company Allied Newspapers Ltd and Progress Press in 1935 and continued to publish a number of newspapers of which the Times of Malta and the Sunday Times of Malta still flourish. As the war clouds gathered it was clear that the newspapers would be important to the war effort by keeping people informed on the progress of the war, as far as the censors would allow. Mabel was the editor-in-chief, from 1935 until after the War and she had an amazing network of contacts right across the globe which was useful in the days before the internet, facebook or twitter. Mabel would have loved twitter!.” ***
Lord Strickland died in 1940 at the beginning of the Second World War and taking on his mantle, Mabel directed her energies to keeping the newspapers running – and she succeeded – never missing an issue even when her offices in Valletta were bombed, Mr Strickland reminded us. “The people of Malta were very heavily bombed and everybody, including Mabel, had to survive on starvation rations. It was said that there were three people running Malta during the war – The Governor, the Archbishop and Mabel.” Miss Strickland was instrumental in getting Governor Dobbie recalled in 1942 at the height of the siege because of fears that he was about to surrender Malta. Lord Gort replaced him and was flown out with the George Cross in his pocket... and the Santa Marija convoy arrived. ***
After the War Mabel moved to Villa Parisio, and was one of the few women observers at the Nuremburg War Trials during which she had to wear a special uniform. “Once that was over, she helped obtain the vote for women in Malta and entered politics, resigning from the Board of Allied when she became an MP, so that the newspaper group could be seen to be independent of any political party,” continued Mr Strickland.
Mabel was a successful business women, ahead of her time, but not wholly successful in politics, he pointed out. This was partly because she never learned Maltese...
“When not involved in politics, my Aunt remained active in the Strickland family newspaper group and in their hotel business that included the Phoenicia Hotel and the Xara Palace Hotel, both still iconic hotels today,” he said.
“Not many people know that the Xara Palace was actually bought by Mabel as a home for her friend, Lord Louis Mountbatten – whose excellent portrait by Willie Apap is here now in our drawing room. It was Mabel’s idea to turn The Xara Palace into a hotel after Mountbatten’s tenure in Malta but she had to speed up her plans when Lord Mountbatten was immediately made Viceroy of India and no longer needed a home in Malta.”
Princess Elizabeth also came to live in Malta and approached Mabel to see if she could rent Villa Parisio. “Mabel was very torn as on the one hand she did not want to turn down the fu- ture Queen of England’s request, but knew also that her stepmother would not allow her to move back into Villa Bologna. So Mabel solved this problem by promising to help The Queen find a house in Malta and as a gesture, to give her a basket of oranges and avocadoes from the garden each Christmas. You will be pleased to hear that we still carry on this tradition even though it stopped for a few years after Mabel’s death. The Queen and Mabel remained on good terms thereafter,” Mr Strickland continued. ***
During the Mintoff years things got tough for Mabel, once again, because her papers criticised the Government and its policies which did not please Mintoff at all. He took every opportunity to strike back.
Mabel never married and so her succession became an issue. “In 1975 she chose me to be her sole heir, which was very flattering but rather unexpected since I was only 21-years-old. My aunt and I got on very well... We also both enjoyed practical jokes and playing chess together.”
After advice received in 1976, Mabel set in motion plans to adopt Robert (with both his and his parents’ consent) so as to embed her Strickland succession strategy and help him to become Maltese. “However, she was immediately frustrated, as this process was blocked by retrospective legislation in 1977. Mintoff was then told that I had married my great aunt and again changed the laws of the land to prevent this. I can assure you that this marriage was neither considered, nor carried out, although it caused many jokes at the time!” (There were many of us present who remembered that.)
Mr Strickland continued: “Mintoff followed this first attack on Mabel’s succession plans by declaring me persona non grata in 1978, purely to get at my aunt. I was then separated from her and forced to remain in the UK for the next nine years during which an angry mob burned The Times, one year later, in 1979. I was extremely sad not to be able to be by her side during those very difficult years, especially as she became very ill and remained so for most of her final ten years.” ***
Mr Strickland then touched upon a sensitive subject to some. “Curiously, Mabel was persuaded to change her Will in 1979 and, although I always remained her sole heir, the Trust she had provided for was changed into the Strickland Foundation which was nevertheless – and I quote “set up for herself and her heirs in perpetuity.””
Mr Strickland then continued his speech and I am quoting word for word: “Notwithstanding this clear instruction, very sadly, since her death, her executors chose to wholly ignore her wishes and have refused to allow me, her sole Strickland heir, onto the Council of the Strickland Foundation – at all – preferring to elect their own sons instead. This is not only an insult to Mabel’s legacy, but the Strickland Foundation has also ignored the fact that I am now a Maltese citizen which is what Mabel wanted to achieve for me to carry on her legacies. This travesty of justice is now being played out in the Maltese Courts since common sense and common decency have yet to prevail. It is very sad that Mabel’s legacy has been so dishonoured by the very people she trusted and that they have seen fit to insult and harass us in our own home and hidden all our family and legal files which, of course, would help the courts to come to a correct judgement. Enough said on this subject, but I feel that many of you do not know the real story because it is suppressed by the main newspapers.”
Mr Strickland then unveiled two bronze portrait sculptures; one of Miss Strickland which he sculpted himself, “from the heart, and from one of the photographs of Lord Snowdon and of course my own memories of living here with her in the Villa. The second sculpture is of her father, Lord Strickland, which my godson, Jasper de Trafford, has kindly allowed me to reproduce from the original at Villa Bologna.” At this point Mr Strickland said that he would like to think that if his aunt were sitting above us on her cloud, “she would be so happy to see us all here, in her home, commemorating her and looking forward to restoring her Strickland legacies to Malta. Please join me in raising a glass to the memory of Mabel.”
This was a most enjoyable party and there is little doubt that Miss Strickland would have approved. mbenoit@independent.com.mt