St. John Ambulance

Hutt News, Volume 18, Issue 1, 7 June 1944, Page 5

St. John Ambulance

HUTT VALLEY ('OKI'S Quite recently the annual Church Parade of the above Corps was held in Lower Hutt. The weather was beautiful, as headed by the Hutt Valley Pipe Band the Corps marched from Queens Road to St. James's Church. The service, which was conducted by the Rev. .1. Davies, was of a most interesting and instructive nature. Throughout the sermon one could not help but remember at least one part of a very well known hymn "The Great Physician now is near, The sympathising Jesus." He briefly brought forward the work done by various historic bodies such as the Knight Templars, the Hospitallers, and the work do 'i — ing the days of the Crusaders which forms such an interesting part of the history of the Mediaeval Period in Europe, and the Holy Land. He brought before us a word picture of the original Hospital of St. John and the great work done there, likening the whole history to a practical fol- , of the lesson taught by The Great Physician.

The Lessons were read by two officers of St. John Ambulance— Corps Officer A. J. Ross, and Corps Supt. (Nursing) Mrs P. J. Fuller, and both had a direct bearing on the glorious work done throughout the ages by those who followed the teachings of Him who throughout His life had but one thought, and one ideal—to help mankind. OUR NURS "ISTERS The Church Service so briefly dealt with has inspired me with the thought that this is a very fitting time to commence my promised series of articles on the work done by our Nursing Divisions. The Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem, came into existence nine hundred years ago and in the early years of its existence quite a number of ladies from various European countries came to that far off land and with the spirit of true Christianity became nurses, dedicating their whole lives to that glorious work. We of these days of fast and comfortable travelling cannot fully appreciate just what this meant then. Let me dedicate a full paragraph to it, and endeavour to give you a pen picture.

To begin where* nations were not at war there was ever present the bandits whcm we read of in so many historical novels, and we must n member that they were very seldom as chivalrous as they are painted by the novelist. In addition Europe was then the happy hunting ground of many very savage animals. The roads were far l'roni good, as a ma', ter of fact in some parts roads did not exist. The only means of communication was by messenger and so when a traveller got just a few miles from home he was further away than we iu New Zealand to-day are t'ron. London. We will just picture tha, in spite of all these difficulties our nurse of !)00 years ago succeeds in attaining her first objective, the Mediterranean Sea, and do not forget gentle reader, that such a journey would take weeks, aye, perhaps months to accomplish. There were no hotels, no road-side restaurants It was not always wise to accept hospitality from the peoples of the various parts of Europe you passeti through and yet these ladies who were the forerunners of our nurse of to-day travelled in many cases over one thousand miles of in many cases very hostile territory in the first part of their journey. We will to-day leave them thercand next week I hope to travel wit; you a little more rapidly over not only miles of strange land but also over a longer historic period of our journey towards that wonderfu worker —the V.A.D. of to-day. JACOBUS.