the year a total of one hundred and forty four Scouts were enrolled in seven different Troops (Mizzi, 1989, p40). The 1st Sliema Scout Troop applied to be registered by The Boy Scouts Association of the United Kingdom on October 12, 1909, and, a year later in 1910, it was registered as the second overseas troop with The Boy Scouts Association. At this time there were 338 Boy Scouts and 3 Scoutmasters listed as members in Malta. Chief Scout Baden-Powell returned many times to the island, including during a part of his delayed honeymoon with Lady Olave, in February 1913, and when he inspected six Troops from Baracca, Dockyard, Floriana, Sliema, Tigne and Valletta. Baden-Powell recognised and shook hands with two of the Scouts he had tea with in London, during the Coronation in 1911. On 15 September 1913, the Malta Boy Scouts Association was formally registered by Imperial Headquarters in London as an Overseas Branch of the Boy Scouts Association. The first known Maltese scout troop which was registered was the ‘Sliema Land Scouts’ in September 1909 (interestingly, the 1st Sliema Scout Group - Bernard's Own - is the oldest surviving active Scout Group outside the UK, and in 2009 they celebrated the 100th Anniversary of scouting in Malta), followed by ‘Barracca Land Scouts’ in December 1911. The Boy Scouts Association formed a local association in Malta on 15 September 1913 which became The Boy Scouts Association Malta Branch. War was declared in August 1914. The First World War had a significant impact on Scouting on Malta, since most of the Scoutmasters were also British and Maltese Servicemen, and who were ordered to the front in Europe. Within weeks of the declaration of hostilities, these Scouts from Malta were on their way to the Western Front. As camps were cancelled, the Scouts volunteered for war service as interpreters, in hospitals, in convalescent centres and in tea rooms, in the censor's office and as coast watchers and messengers. By November 1915, there were 84 scouts on war duty, 44 of whom had qualified for a special war badge. 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 first troop registered in Gozo was the 'Gozo Secondary School’ in November 1916. On Sunday October 14, 1917 a rally