We’ve come to the end of April, so read on to hear about what the Archives Revealed project team have been getting up to over the past month…
April 2025 in the Archive – Sophie (Archivist)
Another month has come and gone incredibly quickly, and for the Archives Revealed team, this month has been all about continuing the cataloguing of the in-scope records, planning the project’s launch activities that will come later on this year, and taking part in an engagement day for St John Ambulance’s youth members.
This month, I’ve been cataloguing some Divisional records for Ambulance and Nursing Cadet Divisions, such as annual receipts and payments accounts, and returns of duties. I’ve also catalogued the in-scope collection of First Aid journal, which was the monthly magazine for the ambulance and nursing services, comprising the St John Ambulance Association, St John Ambulance Brigade, British Red Cross Society and St. Andrew’s Ambulance Association. The magazine was first published in 1894, and are a really exciting and interesting set of records which tell us about the work of these organisations, advances in first aid and healthcare, the organisations’ responses to national and international events, and they also include some great photographs and illustrations.
Our full collection of these magazines (1894 – 1957) has been previously digitised, thanks to a generous donation from the St John Historical Society. When the Archive’s catalogue becomes publicly accessible later this year, you will be able to see the catalogue entry for the magazines alongside viewing the digitised copies of the magazine. Until then, you can access the digitised magazines on issuu, where we currently host our digitised archival collections here.
One of my favourite items this month is a publication which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the St John Ambulance Brigade Overseas, in 1942. While this record falls outside the scope of the Archives Revealed project due to it’s publication date being after 1939, we took the decision to catalogue this item, as it reflects on the work of the Brigade Overseas during its early years, and therefore provides some useful and insightful information of the founding of the Brigade Overseas and of the Brigade in the various countries around the world.
The publication showcases the places that the Brigade Overseas was extant in at the time, including Cyprus, Malaysia, Bermuda, Zimbabwe, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Burma [Myanmar], Jamaica, Trinidad, Canada, Singapore, Ceylon [Sri Lanka], and Barbados to name but a few. It also includes some great stats! For example, did you know that in its first 50 years, the Brigade Overseas grew its membership to over 67,000 men, women, and children? By the end of 1942, its membership came from 152 Ambulance Divisions, 159 Nursing Divisions, 123 Ambulance Cadet Divisions, and 99 Nursing Cadet Divisions.
Take a look at some of the pages from the publication…
Earlier this month, the Museum hosted its first SJA Youth Open Day for St John Cadets (youth members aged 11-17) and Badgers (youth members aged 5-10). We opened the Museum exclusively for groups of our young people and put on activities and displays. Joyce, Josie, and I hosted an interactive display of material from the Archive, which documented the development of the St John Cadets from the 1920s to the present day.
The display included records that have been catalogued as part of the Archives Revealed project (including Cadet Division annual returns, returns of drills, and early Cadet manuals), accompanied by additional Cadet material that will be catalogued in the future (such as promotional leaflets, handbooks, and manuals), a rolling display of Cadet photographs, and a laptop with the Museum’s Cadet Voices website open for our visits to explore and enjoy. Cadet Voices was the oral history project that the Museum carried out in 2022 for the Cadets’ centenary. We partnered with current Cadets to interview past Cadets from the 1940s – 2010s to find out about their experiences, resulting in an online exhibition featuring extracts and transcripts of the oral histories – you can check out the online exhibition here.
Joyce also hosted an activity for the Cadets and Badgers to have a go at the historic bandaging methods that Cadets would have been taught in the 1920s. This was a fantastic opportunity for our young visitors to look at historic first aid manuals and bandaging illustrations from the Archive, and work with Joyce (who narrated the bandaging instructions) and work together to bandage each other and try out some historic techniques (don’t try these at home!). A highlight from the day was Joyce bandaging the Lord Mayor of London’s head!
April 2025 in the Archive – Pat (Project Volunteer)
My involvement in the Archive has been limited over the last month due to other activities, including the planning of events like the VE80 Events. Whilst the VE80 period is out of scope for the Archive Revealed project, we are fortunate that we do have records that cover this and earlier periods. However, for this month’s post, I would like to reflect on the St John Ambulance Brigade in the early days. Whilst researching and cataloguing the Annual Returns for the Ambulance Divisions, I am struck by the details of the records, and one point has resonated a lot with me is around ‘Property’ especially given today’s challenges.
When we see the Divisions (Units) forming, particularly in the early years, we can see that they did not necessarily have ‘headquarter buildings’, and often their HQ is shown as an office within a factory or railway, a local church, scout hall, local Police station, and other interesting buildings along the way. What is clear is that they did try developing the Division, and when the Unit was larger, we can see reference to local Sections where they ‘grew outwards.
One example of this is the No. 44 West London Ambulance Division. Evidence within the Division’s Annual Returns file reveals references to Sections A, B, and C throughout the (West London) District. The Division’s Acton Section is referenced in 1898, the Acton & Hammersmith Section is referenced in 1922, the Brentford Section in November 1908, and the Southall Section in December of the same year. This example, I believe, demonstrates how a Division within an area can grow and expand into the community. In time, we will be able to demonstrate some more of the gems within the Archive that the team has been working on over the last year to give you an insight into our history.
April 2025 in the Archive – Joyce (Project Volunteer)
This month in the Archive has been Cadet themed. I finished cataloguing the Ambulance Cadet Division Annual Returns and began the Nursing Cadet records. The earliest Nursing Cadet Annual Returns we have found to date are for CN2 Wembley Nursing Cadet Division. These date from 1926. It is thought that CN1 Finsbury Nursing Cadet Division was registered in 1922, but we have not found any of these records – yet!
The Nursing Cadet Annual Returns currently being catalogued date from the mid-1920s onwards. Including times just before, during and after the Second World War. It is possible to see through membership numbers of some of the Divisions the impact of war. Cadet membership falls as the young people are evacuated, or they move away from at risk areas with their families. Then in the 1950s some of the Cadet Divisions have hugely increasing membership numbers – I wonder if they struggled to get enough adults for supervision.
There are letters attached to a few of the Annual return records. There are several very polite, written in ‘best handwriting’ letters of apology from Cadets for not attending inspects or parades – being on holiday, too much homework or other school commitments being common reasons.
Very occasionally there are deeply personal letters included. One, written in 1948 by a Cadet Officer, explains that she has just lost her husband and has also had to move out of her home, as requested by the owner. Therefore, because of this stress she has made some mistakes in filling out the cadet Annual Returns and feels terrible about that. Amongst all of this she manages a Cadet Division of about 50 members. Working with this archive material continually reminds me of the dedication and hard work of so many St John volunteers over the years.
April 2025 in the Archive – Josie (Project Cataloguer)
April came and went in a flash, and it’s been another exciting month in the Archive. It was a project highlight, for me, to see archival material being enjoyed by St John Ambulance Cadets and Badgers at our first ever Youth Open Day at the Museum. It was great to meet St John’s young people and hear about their experiences. I loved seeing Joyce bringing the archives to life with a bandaging activity, and Sophie had prepared an incredible feast of photographs, manuals, paintings, magazines and administrative forms for young people to get hands-on with their heritage. Cataloguing can be a micro-level in-depth process of focusing, researching, documenting and repackaging. Although you’re mindful of accessibility in the way you describe and preserve material, it is always such a joy to see people handling and investigating material in person.
From a cataloguing perspective, this month I’ve been tying up some loose ends, which means facing a few boxes of material that I’d put to one side. In a large and complex project like this one, I sometimes put things to one side which require a bit of mulling over, or which I see when I’m gathering other records but pull things at the same time to be catalogued as part of the project.
My item of the month is one such record – Ambulance Choral Music written by Levi Haigh, c.1912.
This sheet music intrigued me because it’s signed by the author, Levi Haigh (c.1862-1935). At first, I assumed he must have been a well-known composer commissioned to write the lyrics, perhaps for some kind of event. A little bit of internet-searching told me that Levi Haigh was a renaissance man from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire – he was a postman, a prolific poet and a local preacher.
The 1891 census records tell us that Haigh lived in a large household of nine family members. In 1901, the census lists his father as working in the foundry as an iron dresser, one brother was a pattern maker [likely in a foundry], another was a clerk in a warehouse, while his sisters were tailors and dressmakers. His father and most of his siblings worked in proximity to industries in the Upper Calder Valley which could be dangerous, and to which the St John Ambulance Association likely provided first aid training.
Our annual reports (digitised and hosted on issuu, accessible by clicking here), occasionally contain brief reports for the St John Ambulance Association in Sowerby Bridge. While the 1912 report does not mention Haigh by name, and although we can’t say for certain whether he was directly involved from our records, we know from his lyrics that he at the very least greatly admired the Association and its work.
Eager-eyed visitors may have also noticed another name on the front of this record – that of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Richard Temple, Assistant Director of the St John Ambulance Association. Perhaps this music was sent or given by Haigh to Temple? I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting.
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We will be launching a public-facing catalogue of all the records catalogued as part of the Archives Revealed project in late summer 2025, so keep your eyes peeled over the coming months for more information!
