The Royal Malta Artillery

Abstract

On October 1st, 1970 the Royal Malta Artillery ceased to form part of the British Army and another precious link between these Islands and the British Isles was severed. A brief look at the history of this artillery regiment - whose name is today a household word in these Islands - will show clearly the independence which this regiment enjoyed under British rule and the soldiers' pride in a regiment whose deeds fill golden pages in the history of the British forces in Malta. The first artillery regiment composed entirely of Maltese and established under the explicit auspices of Great Britain, was formed in the year 1801 - the same year in which the Maltese Militia (Milizia Maltese, second Maltese infantry unit to be raised by the British since 1800) was formed, and a year before the Treaty of Amiens (March 27, 1802) which included a paragraph stating that half of the garrison of our Islands was always to be recruited from among the natives of the said Islands, and provided with Maltese officers.