Anthony Zarb Dimech
31 May marked the centenary of the Battle of Jutland, the most significant naval battle of the First World War. Malta participated through the provision of personnel who were employed as civilian staff on board H.M ships. Some of these men were employed in canteen management and shipchandling activities with renowned Maltese naval contractors such as Baptist Borda & Sons. This Feature puts into perspective and honours the role played by these men who gave up all to serve their country.
The National Archives of the UK will be displaying original documents relating to the battle, as part of nationwide commemorations. These will include service records, ship logs and naval maps. As a matter of fact this collection of First World War records is one of the largest in the world. It includes, among many other documents, service records, letters, diaries, maps and photographs.
During the centenary the National Archives of the UK are opening up this collection and hosting a variety of events and exhibitions, engaging in key debates and topics from the war. Such activities should provoke the Maltese counterpart of the UK National Archives to jealousy and organise such events to commemorate the Maltese who perished in this great sea battle.
Malta's Role
During the First World War, Malta was a centre of activity in supplying the British Empire with thousands of workers at H.M. Dockyard in Malta and overseas by way of Army and Navy personnel. Malta was also a base for the sick and wounded who arrived on the Islands mostly from the Dardanelles and Salonika. It also served as a prisoner of war camp and there was also a small aviation base. The Navies of Britain and France made full use of the harbours.
Malta was also active in the area of communications where, almost all the cables that transited the Mediterranean went through Malta. When Admiral Fisher was commander in chief and based in Malta, he had a private arrangement with the cable companies to receive copies of all diplomatic traffic and he set up a code-breaking cell to read them.
A War Room containing a plotting table was established in Admiralty House on Malta, to make use of all the information.
The great sea battles and the Maltese connection
In 1915, British and French battleships launched a massive attack on Turkish positions at Cape Helles and Kum Kaleh at the entrance to the Dardanelles, the narrow strait separating Europe from Asia in northwestern Turkey and the only waterway linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. The largely unsuccessful Allied efforts to force their way into the Dardanelles continued over two months, including a disastrous attempt on 18 March in which three ships were sunk and three more badly damaged by Turkish mines before the attack had even begun. Over Churchill's protests, the naval attack was called off and a larger land invasion involving 120,000 troops was planned.
H.M.S. Inflexible was an invincible-class battle cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was built before the First Word War and had an active career during the war. She tried to hunt down the German battle cruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau in the Mediterranean Sea when war broke out and she and her sister ship Invincible sank the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau during the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Inflexible bombarded Turkish forts in the Dardanelles in 1915, but was damaged by return fire and struck a mine while maneuvering. She had to be beached to prevent her from sinking, but she was patched up and sent to Malta, and then Gibraltar for more permanent repairs. Transferred to the Grand Fleet afterwards she damaged the German battle cruiser Lützow during the Battle of Jutland and watched Invincible explode. She was deemed obsolete after the war and was sold for scrap in 1921.
H.M.S. Indefatigiable and the Battle of Jutland
Maltese personnel who perished in this battle were employed as civilians with the Admirality and were part of the firm Baptist Borda & Sons who were shipchandlers and canteen managers on H.M ships.
It was on 21 July 1916 when the Chief Petty Officers and 1st Class Petty Officers of the H.M.S. Inflexible issued a letter commending Baptist Borda & Sons for the zealous way in which Baptist Borda and his staff carried out their job in canteen management and other multifarious duties on the ship (between 1 November 1912 and 1 August 1916) and especially during the Falkland Islands campaign on 8 December 1914, the bombardments at the Dardanelles during 19 February, 4, 5 and 18 March 1915 and the Battle of Jutland between 31 May and 1 June 1916. At least one in four of Maltese Royal Navy personnel who died during the First World War perished outside the Mediterranean, notably at the Battle of Jutland.
During these campaigns, staff employed by Baptist Borda & Sons on service with the Admirality also perished as shown in the holy pictures presented here. On 31 May 1916, the first day of the Battle of Jutland, Emmanuele Cuschieri, aged 34 perished. He worked with Antonio Borda as writer in the canteen of H.M.S. Black Prince (keeping records and other paperwork during the journey). Mr Cuschieri was survived by his wife and children. During the same Battle of Jutland, another Antonio Borda, aged 25 died on the frigate, H.M.S. Indefatigable. As the fortunes or misfortunes of war had it, the mother of George Vella, Spira (who was the sister of Antonio Borda) wrote to her brother Antonio lamenting of her son's George death on the H.M.S. Indefatigable and told her brother that if he had kept his nephew on the H.M.S. Inflexible, instead giving him work on the H.M.S. Indefatigable, he would not have perished.
List of Maltese civilians employed with the Admirality killed or died of wounds by ship during the Battle of Jutland
The following is between 31 May - 1 June 1916 with Commonwealth War Graves information:
1. HMS Indefatigable
- Antonio Borda - canteen assistant
Age: 24. Son of Carmena Borda, of 11, Vicolo Secondo, Strada Rinella, Calcara, Malta, and the late Antonio Borda.
Borda, Antonio
Rank: canteen assistant
Regiment/Service: Admiralty Civilian
H.M.S. Indefatigable
Age: 24. Date of Death: 31/05/1916
Additional information: Son of Carmena Borda, of 11, Vicolo Secondo, Strada Rinella, Calcara, Malta, and the late Antonio Borda.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 20. Memorial: Plymouth Naval Memorial
One of the unsung heroes of the Battle of Jutland.
His fellow canteen assistants, who also died on the Indefatigable that day, were:
Cachia, Salvatore
Camilleri, Carmello
Monroy, Carmelo
Vella, George
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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- Salvatore Cachia - canteen assistant
Age: 29. Son of Vincent and Angelina Cachia, of 15, Strada Signia, Calcara, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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- Carmelo Camilleri - canteen assistant
Age: 21. Son of Paolo and Filomena Camilleri, of Hamrun, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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- Carmelo Munrho - canteen assistant
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- George Vella - canteen assistant
Age: 20. Son of Spria Vella, of 35c, Strada Rinella, Calcara, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
2. HMS Black Prince
- Guiseppe Joseph Lucas Antonius Abela
Canteen server - H.M.S. Black Prince
Age: 33. Son of Guiseppe and Anna Abela, of Malta; husband of Benarda Abela, of 4, Strada Britannica, Cospicua, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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- Carmelo Aloysius Vencentius Baldacchino - canteen assistant
Age: 33. Son of Salvo and Michelina Baldacchino, of 17, Strada Gregale; husband of Antonia Baldacchino, of Strada San Filippo, Sengleo, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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- Edgar A. Borg (Representative on navy list, Canteen manager assistant, Royal Navy at CWGC)
Age: 22. Son of the late Fedele and Laura Borg, of Senglea, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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Canteen Manager - H.M.S. Black Prince, Royal Navy
Age 34. Son of Saverinu and Antonia Cachia, of Calcara, Malta; husband of Liberata Cachia, of 4, Via Capuccini, Calcara.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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Canteen server
Age: 23. Son of Tom Ghiller, of 33, Str. Porto Salvo, Senglea, Malta, and the late Giovanna Ghiller.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
3. H.M.S. Defence
- Giosni Cafieri. Canteen manager. (Spelling "Giosue Cafiero" at CWGC)
Age: 35. Son of Capt. Giosue and Elizabeth Cafiero, of Senglea, Malta; husband of Mary C. Cafiero, of 260, Prince of Wales Road, Sliema, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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- Joseph Bonnici - canteen server
Age: 26. Son of Lorenzo Bonnici, of 141, Strada Taro, Cospicua, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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- Gaetano Chicofi - canteen Server. (Spelling "Chircop" at CWGC)
Age: 36. Son of Lawrence and Jane Chircop, of Vittoriosa, Malta.
Plymouth Naval Memorial
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