History
Scouting appeared on the island of Malta very soon after the experimental scouting camp on Brownsea Island was conducted by Robert Baden-Powell in August 1907. The 1st Sliema Scout Troop applied for recognition on November 9, 1908, and this was received a year later. At this time there were 338 Boy Scouts and 3 Scoutmasters listed as members of the Malta Boy Scouts Association.
The association was formerly registered as an Overseas Branch of The Boy Scouts Association on 15 September 1913.
The First World War had a significant impact on Scouting on Malta, since most of the Scoutmasters were also servicemen and were ordered to the front in Europe. Many of the Scouts also volunteered for duties as interpreters, coast watchers and messengers, as well as to serve in hospitals and other support establishments. By the end of 1915, there were 84 Scouts on war duty from the island, and only 105 Scouts and leaders on Malta. However, as the latter half of the war progressed, membership rose sharply, and the association's general meeting on 30 November 1917, reported 1,200 members with 28 Scout Troops on the island.
The Second World War saw similar service from the Maltese Scouts, as they supported the Allied forces throughout the aerial siege of 1940 to 1943. This resulted in the association and its members receiving a collective award of the Bronze Cross, "in recognition of their courage and devotion to duty in the face of continuous enemy action in the war for freedom".
The island of Malta became an independent state in 1964. In October 1966, It was decided at an extraordinary general meeting of the Malta Boy Scouts Association that it should remove itself from The Scout Association of the United Kingdom and seek direct membership of the World Scout Conference. The association was recognised as an independent organisation in December 1966, with Lady Olave Baden-Powell, acting as the Vice-President of the World Bureau, presenting the certificate to the Chief Scout of Malta.
In 2007, the association inaugurated the Beaver section.
Read more about this topic: Scout Association Of Malta
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