In Malta, driving towards Valletta, you see a large obelisk amidst the many lanes of traffic fighting their way to work. This monument is Spencer Obelisk and has a connection to a future king of England.

The obelisk was built in June 1831. It was inaugurated on Kordin heights overlooking the Grand Harbour. The crew of HMS Madagascar commissioned this obelisk to remember the late Captain Robert Spencer.

This wasn’t long after the British took control of the Maltese Islands.

Captain Spencer was the second son of the second Earl of Spencer¹. (This makes him Prince William’s great-great-great-great uncle from his mother’s side².) His life in the Navy included accompanying Lord Nelson to the West Indies³.

While in Alexandria, Egypt, Spencer was taken ill and he died on board the Madagascar⁴. His body was brought to rest in Malta and buried in St Michael’s Bastion². This forms part of the fortifications around Valletta that the Knights had built. Since then, this is referred to as Spencer Bastion in the Captain’s honour⁴. Today you can walk around the top of the bastions in the appropriately named Hastings Garden.

He was well-loved by his crew which led to them commissioning the obelisk^{2 4} in 1831⁵.

In 1893⁵, the British Navy recommended moving the obelisk. The authorities correctly figured that enemy battleships could bomb the dockyard using the obelisk as a marker. The obelisk was promptly moved to Blata L-Bajda which is where it still stands to this day.

References

1. Spencer, Sir Robert Cavendish; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; (Retrieved 2018-05-13) [↩]
2. The Malta Independent, Princess Diana’s Abandoned Uncle in Malta, 2009[↩][↩][↩]
3. William Richard O’Bryne, A Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849[↩]
4. “Some public monuments of Valletta 1800–1955”; Donald H Simpson; Melita Historica[↩][↩][↩]
5. Art and architecture in Malta in the early nineteenth century; Ellul, Michael[↩][↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.