Was Valerie Meux the "Queen of the Cyprians"?

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One of the most curious references to Valerie Meux appeared in the Sporting Times on 13 July 1878, just weeks after Britain took control of Cyprus.

In a spoof "secret treaty" supposedly stolen from the government, the newspaper proposed:

🔹 The inhabitants of Cyprus should be replaced by "genuine Cyprians" from St John's Wood and South Belgravia.

🔹 "Val Reece" should be appointed Queen of the Cyprians.

🔹 Other notorious sporting and social characters would govern this eccentric kingdom.

To modern readers, the joke seems baffling. But Victorian readers would have understood that Cyprian had a double meaning.

While the term referred to someone from Cyprus, it could also mean a woman of questionable reputation. The word ultimately derived from Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was closely associated with Cyprus.

So what was the newspaper implying?

Was Valerie being compared to Aphrodite, the celebrated beauty of Cyprus? Or was this a sly, knowing joke about her past as a kept mistress in St John's Wood, one of the very districts mentioned in the article?

The fact that the paper simply referred to "Val Reece" without explanation suggests readers were expected to recognise her immediately.

Nearly 150 years later, the mystery remains: satire, compliment, insult, or all three at once?

What do you think the Sporting Times was really saying about Valerie?