In 1951, the 1,500 schools and colleges of the De La Salle Order spread through the five continents celebrated the Third Centenary of the birth of St. John Baptist de la Salle. The students who at De La Salle College were preparing to enter H.M. Dockyard, Malta, resolved to donate their first weekly salary towards the erection of a statue of the saint in the event of their being successful at the very competitive Dockyard Entrance Examination. The proposal met with general approval and thus it was that from 1951 to 1959, successive groups of candidates contributed the grand sum of Lm 874, 17s, 8d to a special fund.