Scouting in Malta

Baden Powell meeting the Cub Scouts during one of his visits

It was during his term of office as Assistant Military Secretary to his uncle General Sir Henry Smyth, the Governor of Malta between 1890-93, that Captain Robert Baden-Powell, later Lord Robert Baden Powell of Gilwell, showed concern for the welfare of the soldiers and led to his writing 'Aids to Scouting'.

During his time on the Island, Baden Powell started contributing his sketches to English newspapers, learnt sculpting, organized stage shows and opened a gymnasium that he dubbed 'The Poultice'.

With his strong connections with Malta and his many Maltese friends, it was only natural that The Scout Association of Malta would be the first overseas branch of the British Association to be formed barely months after the first Scouts appeared on the Maltese island and within a short time from his initial experimental camp on Brownsea Island held between July-August 1907

The Malta Scout Association formally applied to become a member of the British Movement on November 9, 1908 and was officially recognized just one year after the formation of Scouting in the United Kingdom. With the official registration of two scout troops, the Scout Movement Malta was founded in 1909.

These first few Scouts started a tradition that has kept scouting in the very forefront of youth education in Malta. Since its early years Scouting has been the most active and strongest youth organization on the Island.

In 1913, the "Malta Boy Scout Association" was registered as a local branch of the British Association, and consisted of one hundred boys in six Troops.

Lord Baden-Powell had a special affection for Malta. He made it a point to pay visits, even if just for a short while during his many Mediterranean cruises.

On Saturday April 7,1934 Baden Powell, convalescing after two severe operations, was aboard the White Star liner Adriatic that sailed into the Grand Harbour with some six hundred Scouters and Guiders as part of a Mediterranean Cruise. His health did not permit Baden Powell to land, but did not hinder him from going up to the upper deck and seating himself in a chair facing Valletta.

Members of the Qrendi Scout Group, (pictured in Valletta), together with Scout Master Luigi Galea turn up to see Lord Baden Powell during his visit to Malta in 1937

The resulting welcome which the Maltese Scouts gave him on his appearance, is said to have touched him that tears ran down his cheeks as he penned a letter of regret to the Island Commissioner Col Warral, in which he is quoted to have said:

" ... I have, as you know, a soft place in my heart for Malta and the Maltese people through old and happy association, and hence my joy at seeing the success of the Movement and my sincere hope for its further development. "

The role played by the Maltese Scouts during the Second World War provides some of the brightest pages in the annuals of scouting. This is best shown in Hilary St. George Saunder's book "The Left Handshake":

" One part of the Empire deserves special mention. The Scouts of Malta endured a heavier ordeal than any others. They were employed, like their comrades elsewhere, as coast watchers, messengers, telephone operators, they manned A.R.P. centers, worked in the censor's office in the hospitals, and those who were old enough, in the Volunteer Defence Force.

One of their most important duties was that of acting as telephone orderlies when convoys were unloaded. The ships - those of them that were fortunate enough to survive a voyage beset by enemy submarines and aircraft - had to discharge their cargo with the utmost speed and nearly always under heaving bombing attacks. Telephone instruments were placed at intervals for collecting and relaying the necessary information.

The bravery of the scouts during the frequent air raids became a byword among the population. Early in the war they adopted as their motto 'Scarred but no scared'. Their headquarters was destroyed together with all records; but two stories that have survived show their quality.

One is that of an unnamed 17 year old Scout who held a lamp the whole night to enable men extricating the persons buried under the debris of a bombed house to see their way, and was killed a month later by a bomb which destroyed the room he was decorating for a children's party. "

Lord Robert Baden Powell of Gilwell
Chief Scout of the World
Founder of the Scout Movement

The conduct of the Maltese Scouts caused them to be specially and fondly remembered by Lord Baden-Powell, who was then in the last year of his life. In what was possibly his last letter, written from Paxtu in Kenya on July 21, 1940 he stated:

" ... I would like to congratulate my old friends, the Maltese, on the plucky way in which they have stood up to the infernal bombing of the Italians… I know they have the spirit of fearlessness and patience, which enables them to face danger with a smile and to stick it out to the triumphant end. "

The Scouts of Malta played a notable role in the aerial siege of the Island between 1940 and 1943. They were collectively decorated with the unique honour 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'.

Continuing from "The Left Handshake" we read that:

"... Despite the fierce attacks, camping and other Scout activities continued as usual, and only on St. George's Day 1942, did the bombing prove too severe to hold the customary Rally. On the next anniversary of that festival, the Bronze Cross, awarded to the Scouts of Malta, was solemnly presented in the presence of eight hundred of those who had contributed so valiantly to the winning of it.

When in June 1943, the King visited Malta, the Scouts broke the police cordon and gave him a 'roaring welcome', running beside his car, so that he arrived at the Palace escorted by ' Scouts and Flags '. The George Cross conferred on Malta for its dogged resistance was earned as much by the Scouts as by many of its inhabitants. They were all a shining example to Scouts everywhere as long as the Movement endures."

The Scout Association of Malta was until 1966 a branch of the British Association. Malta became an independent state in 1964 and in October 1966 the Maltese national organization became a full member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement.

The Maltese Scouts have been represented at all Jamborees except two, those in the Philippines and Japan. It was the Maltese Scout contingent, which at Olympia in 1920 initiated the move that proclaimed B-P Chief Scout of the World.

The Scouts of Malta have maintained throughout all these years their sense of service and dedication to the ideals of the Movement as conceived by its founder.

Today, Malta can boast of an efficiently run Scout Association consisting of approximately two thousand seven hundred uniformed members forming the thirty nine Scout Groups that make up the four Scout Districts of the Scout Association of Malta.

In the year two thousand, the Scout Association of Malta went coeducational.