ST JOHN AMBULANCE. PROMOTION WEEK

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32715, 18 September 1971, Page 15

ST JOHN AMBULANCE. PROMOTION WEEK

The men and women in the uniform of the St John Ambulance Brigade are a familiar sight at hundreds of public functions today. And well they should be familiar. Last year, in Christchurch alone their hours of duty amounted to almost 40,000, all given voluntarily.

Adult members of the brigade in Christchurch last year spent 14,000 hours on public duty and 25,000 hours as voluntary ambulance attendants. This was equivalent to having 19 persons working 40 hours every week for a year—without payment. Next week, the Priory of New Zealand of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem —the full title of this longestablished organisation—will hold a national promotion week to draw the attention of the public to the extent of its work. To mark the week, a plaque commemorating the founding of the order in New Zealand will be dedicated on Sunday afternoon at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Merivale, where the first meeting was held on April 30, 1885. The plaque will be dedicated by the Archdeacon of Christchurch and vicar of St Mary’s, the Ven. R. P. F. Plaistowe. Also participating in the service Will be the chairman of the Christchurch sub-centre of the order (Mr D. H. Lawrence), the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. M. L. Underhill), and the chaplain to the Priory in New Zealand (the Rt Rev. A. K. Warren). The promotion week will

b e opened by the Prior in New Zealand, the GovernorGeneral (Sir Arthur Porritt), who will speak in a national television broadcast about 7.25 p.m. tomorrow. During next week, the Christchurch sub-centre of the St John Ambulance Association will have static displays in the Victoria Street branch of the Bank of New South Wales and the main Post .Office Savings Bank in Hereford Street. As well, headmasters of local primary schools have been asked to allow St Jdhn cadets to wear their St John uniforms to school for a day, and there will be a rescue exercise by the civil defence organisation, incorporating St John Ambulance Brigade members.

Next Friday, an ambulance and the sub-centre’s first-aid caravan will be on display in Cathedral Square and there will be another display of, equipment at the Northlands shopping centre. Some 2000 car stickers,’reading “St John Serves You,” 'will be distributed. ORIGIN IN CRUSADES The displays are to publicise the work of the Order of St John, which originated in Jerusalem during the Crusades of the eleventh century continuing a hospice established in the third century. After the revival of the order .in England, in 1831,

there was art upsurge of interest in ambulance work, the Order of St'John taking a leading part in its development. The St/John Ambulance Association was formed in 1877, and the St John Ambulance Brigade 10 years later.

In New Zealand, the order was founded at a meeting convened by the Rev. T. Flavell at St Mary’s Anglican Church in Merivale, Where the first centre of the St John Ambulance Association was formed. The St John Ambulance Association is the teaching and alministrative side of the order, iwth responsibility for instruction in (irst aid, the organisation of transport, and the publication of material on ambulance work. The first New Zealand St John Ambulance Brigade—the uninformed voluntary organisation of men and women trained in first aid and home nursing to render emergency treatment—was formed in Dunedin in 1892.

Cadet appeared first in 1922, the first cadet ■unit to be established outside the United Kingdom being at Wanganui in 1927. St John Ambulance Brigade members, the men in black uniforms and the women in grey, are voluntary “first-aiders,” medical practi-

tioners, and registered nurses who receive no payment for their services.

There are some 10,000 brigade members in New Zealand. They act as attendants for the association’s ambulances and often in country districts are the voluntary drivers; train as voluntary aids in hospitals; assist with the care of the aged; and train for civil-defence emergencies.

In addition to the 300 adult members of the brigade in Christchurch, that are 16 men who are paid drivers of the 10 ambulances run by the Christchurch sub-centre of the association.