Once home to a princess, Malta remembers the queen

By KEVIN SCHEMBRI ORLAND
Associated Press

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — A dilapidated villa outside Malta’s capital where a young Princess Elizabeth and her husband lived before she became queen has become a focal point of Malta’s remembrance of the late monarch. Flowers and wreaths have crowded the door of Villa Guardamangia, where Elizabeth and Prince Philip spent months at a time between 1949 and 1951, since the death of the woman who would go on to serve for 70 years as Queen Elizabeth II. Philip, a Royal Navy officer, was assigned to Malta in the early years of the couple’s marriage. . Unlike citizens of some other former British colonies, Maltese generally remember the monarch with respect and warmth.