The Royal Army Medical Corps
And the Malta Garrison
1935

In Sept 1935, the War Office decided to reinforce Malta as a precaution against an Italian invasion. The 14th Infantry Bde, made up of the 2nd/Lincolnshire Regiment, the 2nd/South Wales Borderers and the 1st/King's Own Scottish Borderers, arrived on 28 Sept as extra reinforcements.

The regiments marched to a hanger at RAF Kalafrana, where they stayed for the nine months duration of the crisis. Barbed wire surrounded all the island's bays and inlets; specially constructed boom defences guarded the Grand Harbour and Sliema harbours; additional air squadrons and anti-aircraft units arrived from England.

On 15 Oct, service families were evacuated from Malta. The emergency ended in May 1936 with the fall of Addis Ababa and the exile of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Abyssinia, to Palestine. On 16 June 1936, the League of Nations raised its sanctions against Italy and life in Malta returned to normal.

In 1935, work begun on a fort on the ridge overlooking Mistra Bay so as to defend the approaches from Mellieha and St Paul's Bay.

The fort was named Fort Campbell after Gen Sir David Graham Muschet Campbell, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta (June 1931 – Mar 1936). The fort replaced Wardija Battery in the defence of St Paul's Bay anchorage.

The strength of the garrison on 30 June 1935 was 160 officers and 2,879 rank and file.

• 2 July Paul John Norman Copeland born 5 January 1935, son of Mary and Chaplain to the Forces Norman Copeland of No 1, Piazza Miratore, Floriana.