Volunteers need "thick skin’

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 7

Volunteers need "thick skin’

Skin as thick as a rhinoceros is needed to be a St John Ambulance Brigade officer, according to a long-serving brigade volunteer, Mr Francis Scott, aged 66.

Mr Scott, known to most as Scottie, is retiring from volunteer work after 50 years service.

Insults and abuse from the injured and the public were part of the job, especially when on sports field duty, he said. But many of those he helped over the years were grateful and one man who abused him for blocking

the view at a street parade several years later joined the brigade. A grandfather who had served in the medical corps during World War I got Mr Scott interested in medical matters and in 1935, aged 12, he joined the St Faith’s cadet division in Brighton.

He later served in the St Chad’s Cadet Division, New Brighton adult division and at Wharenui as a cadet officer, before joining St Matthew’s division at the St John headquarters in Peterborough Street in 1953, where he

stayed until his retirement this week. Although he mainly trained young cadets, Mr Scott also spent many hours working on sports fields and on night ambulance duty. The young volunteers were dedicated and keen to learn but they had diminished in number over the years. Mr Scott said he was saddened by a the number of young people who asked if they would be paid for their work. Seeing a second generation come through the

brigade was one of the rewards of volunteer work. All Mr Scott’s six children have been St John volunteers and have received the Grand Prior badge. His four grandchildren, two nieces and a nephew are also among family members to serve St John. Mr Scott spent all his working life as a machine 1 shop worker at the Railways Addington workshop, before retiring in 1979. He would miss his voluntary work with St John, he said.