An online evening talk in partnership with the St John Historical Society.

The pressures faced by the British Empire during the Second World War left Malta Command generally underprepared—though categorically committed—when war broke out in the Mediterranean in June 1940. In this context, the island’s Hospitaller-era military architecture offered a convenient, if improvised, solution, reflecting Malta Command’s response to operational needs in an ad hoc manner as the siege wore on. This talk will explore the role of the Hospitaller-era fortifications in modern war.

Gianluca Giorgio Falzon is Curator at the Malta Maritime Museum and a doctoral researcher at the University of Malta. He is currently reading for his PhD on the operational-level interplay between Axis intelligence, British fortress security, and the Maltese population as the ‘colonised’ between 1935 and 1942. He is currently involved in the redesign phase of the Malta Maritime Museum, working to expand the museum’s narrative in preparation for its reopening in the coming years.

Click here to book for The Last Bastions: The duality of Hospitaller-Maltese military architecture in modern war, 1940-1942 via Eventbrite or call us on 020 7324 4005.