When Queen Adelaide, the widow of William IV, spent the winter of 1838/39 in Malta she was keen to find a Collegiate church in the Anglican tradition. Anglican services were held in a room in the Grand Master’s Palace and it was “insufficient to contain more than the chief English families”. The vast majority of English residents were unable to worship together. Queen Adelaide’s offer to pay for a church overcame all objections.
They left the island with all their fellow knights following Napoleon Bonaparte’s annexation. In 1927 whilst the foundations for the Chancellors residence were being excavated, a piece of stone was unearthed. This was from the old Auberged’Allemagne which was on the site previously, and the stone was placed in the Valletta Museum collection for safe keeping. The stone in the wall of the Royal Marines Chapel is a cast. In translation, it reads: “Brother James Spar, of Germany, Grand Bailiff of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. 1571
