ST. JOHN AMBULANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 4

ST. JOHN AMBULANCE

STREET COLLECTION TO-MORROW

It is interesting to record that the St. John Ambulance Association, which will conduct a street day in Dunedin to-morrow, was the pioneer of all ambulance civilian work. The movement was started in London in 1878, and its ramifications have since spread over the world. In this connection it may be stated that the first effort leading to systematic first aid instruction in the United States began in 1899, in the mining village of Jermyn, Pennsylvania. A group of miners there,, who had previously received some training in England from the St. John Ambulance Association, formed a first aid club under a physician named Major M. J. Shields. Th'' idea soon found favour throughout th anthracite mining regions, and classe. were developed which in time held rival contests among themselves. In 1908 a member of the American Red Cross Executive Committee witnessed one of those contests, and immediately began to urge that first aid instruction should be made a peace-time activity of the American 'Red Cross. The central committee adopted the suggestion, and in 1909 organised the Red Cross First Aid Bureau.