I started as a Volunteer in the Museum Office in October 2015 having had a long association with the Order as a Member of St John Ambulance. This association started when I joined as a Cadet at 14 and continued until I retired as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner at London District, working in Member Support responsible for Medals, Awards and Records.

At a short interview I was asked to outline my interests and skills. I have spent my working life from the age of 17 until the age of 69 as a nurse working and teaching operating theatre technique and I am interested in history, especially the history of medicine and surgery. I also have an interest in computing. This fitted in well with the first project offered to me which involved identifying, describing and cataloguing items of medical, nursing and first aid equipment that have been donated to the Museum. I was amazed by the variety of equipment that had been donated and the mind boggles as to how some of it had ever been held as first aid equipment.

In January 2016 I commenced working on a second project that had been started and had yet to be completed. This involved the records of Service Medals and Bars that have been awarded to members in the overseas territories. They are kept by the International Department on a collection of cards, service records and medal application forms. The project was to create a digital record. This has involved constructing a computer database and transferring the data from the paper records and an Excel record that had already been started. This will enable records to be searched for faster by using either a known medal number or a member’s country of origin and surname. From this a report can be produced and printed that will display the date of the award and subsequent service bars obtained. I have now enlarged the data collected to add to the report the unit history and rank history when this is available. To date there are over 3500 records of members from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ceylon, Malta, New Zealand and South Africa available and the work continues with much more information to be added.

It is envisaged that this data will be available online so that individuals undertaking family history searches will be able to find and identify their family members who have served in St John Ambulance and received recognition of their service.

Becoming a Volunteer has allowed me to continue working for the Order, maintain my contact with former St John members and allow me to continue to use the skills gained from work and volunteering experience. I enjoy the travelling to London on one or two days of the week and have met a new group of co-workers with similar interests to myself.