We’ve come to the end of August, so read on to hear about what the Archives Revealed project team have been getting up to over the past month… 

August 2025 in the Archive – Sophie (Archivist)

It’s hard to believe that there is only a month and a half left on the project, but here we are, not long left to go. In September, we’ll be doing some super exciting things, like filming our introduction to the Archive, and launching the Archive catalogue, so my work this month has involved mopping up bits and bobs of Divisional records, working on authority records (the biographical/informational records we hold on individuals and organisations connected to St John), hosting our final Project Steering Group meeting, and getting ready to share the catalogue with you all.

The Divisional records we hold, like this example below of a Return of Drills and Duties form for the Westgate-on-Sea Ambulance Division in 1944, are fantastic resources for research. This form was used by Divisions of the St John Ambulance Brigade on an annual basis to record on one side (pictured below) the times when Division members attended drills and practises, and on the other side, the number of public duties attended by the members. When researching the history of the Brigade, this record can tell us the strength of a Division at any one time – here we can see the Division had 12 members – and when looked at alongside returns from different years, it can tell us how the strength of the Division increased or waned. When undertaking family history research, records such as these, which include individuals’ names, can help to develop a picture of the experience that a family member may have had while being a part of St John.

The most important piece of work that Josie and I have been doing in the last few weeks is to do the mammoth task of checking/cleaning all the catalogue records we have produced to ensure we have met our cataloguing guidelines and do a final check of spelling, capitalisation, and formatting. With over 2,000 records created (including all levels: Fonds>Sub-fonds>Series>Sub-Series>Sub-sub-series>Sub-sub-sub-series>File>Item). This is a time-consuming task, but one that is necessary before we make the catalogue live. If anyone needs Josie and I while we carry out this task, you can find us glued to our laptops (fuelled by coffee and biscuits, of course!)

August 2025 in the Archive – Joyce (Project Volunteer)

There is a real sense of the Archives Revealed project actually becoming the St John Archive’s new working and accessible catalogue system. After the huge amount of work completed by Archive staff and other volunteers this is very exciting.

During August I have finished cataloguing the Annual Returns for Kent Nursing and Kent Nursing Cadet Divisions. At this stage inevitably misplaced documents are found or a type of Division not recorded before – such as a Kent District Nursing Cadet Division. These documents then need to be correctly placed within the catalogue.  It is very satisfying (and a relief!) when the numbering and filing systems, both physical and on the computerised catalogue, work and are adaptable enough to accommodate this new additional information.

Some details of Kent Nursing Cadet Division duties caught my attention. One in particular was for the Wateringbury Nursing Cadet Division, when in 1945 it was noted, the Cadets volunteered at the ‘Hop Pickers Dispensary’. As was traditional for some South London families my own Dad as a boy and teenager went with his family to pick hops for the season near Wateringbury. I don’t know if he ever had need of St John help!

At the end of August, I began to catalogue some of the Kent Ambulance Divisions, starting with Division names towards the end of the alphabet as Pat has completed the vast majority of Ambulance Division records – a huge task. From the records for Tunbridge Wells Ambulance Division, I was reminded that you never know what the future for a Division might hold within the St John organisation. A note on the 1903 BF2 Brigade Record Sheet stated that ‘This division has not been efficient for years, and aught to be disbanded’. Fortunately, the Tunbridge Wells Ambulance Division was not disbanded, as by 1940 it had 104 members including those in various Sections supported by the Division.

August 2025 in the Archive – Josie (Project Cataloguer)

It’s hard to believe September is already here and we’re fast approaching the end of the project. As we’re heading into the final stretch, my focus has been cataloguing, cataloguing, cataloguing. At time of writing, I have one box of material and a few loose records left – some of these are ‘mystery’ records (records with nothing obvious to attach them to a particular Division), which will take a bit of extra research, while others are more straight-forward records relating to the founding years of the Order of St John.

My favourite recent find has been a minute book relating to the Gateshead Fell Ambulance Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade. It’s quite an unassuming volume, and it was placed in one of my ‘mystery’ boxes quite a while back because, at a glance, I was unsure whether it originated from an Ambulance or Nursing Division and seemed to contain material relevant to both.

On closer inspection, I determined that it was an Ambulance Division record. But the cause for uncertainty is at the root of what I love about this volume. It’s first pages feature pasted newspaper cuttings about a newly established Gateshead Fell Nursing Division. Established in 1894, the Ambulance Division welcomed a Nursing Division in 1915, just over 20 years after its formation, and clearly celebrated its achievements as though they were their own. An article in the Illustrated Chronicle relays the Ambulance Division’s good wishes to the Nursing Division and reports a large crowd of volunteers interested in joining, as well as listing the names of early Nursing certificate recipients.

As someone who used to live around the corner from Low Fell in Gateshead, I felt a real sense of curiosity and joy looking at this volume. The sense of camaraderie and support across the Brigade is palpable throughout most of the records I’ve catalogued, but (and admittedly, I might be a little biased) this one is particularly special. I don’t think I’ve seen another example of early records that show this level of support and excitement between counterpart Divisions. It’s been a treat to come across this towards the end of the project because it highlights once again the many ways into this collection – whether that’s gender, geography, industry; the list goes on and on – and also the real sense of connection someone can have when engaging with these records. Although I’m sad the project is coming to an end, I’m excited to see the connections it will bring for others.

August 2025 in the Archive – Pat (Project Volunteer)

It is hard to believe that Joyce and I have been involved in this project since October 2023 and as Joyce said, there is a real sense of the Archives Revealed project coming to fruition and this is down to many, many peoples work.

As reported in last month’s update, I am pleased to say that the Annual Returns for London are now complete and documented – this is a big milestone. Joyce has been patiently working away on the Kent Annual Returns, and I have now started work on the Annual Returns for the Kent Ambulance Divisions; we hope to have these completed by the end of September.

We do like to read the feedback from our updates, and I know that Museum team enjoy the messages that they get from you. If I may; I do have one request; as news of our work continues to grow and become more known about, people are finding records of their Division that they have had for some years. These can be old papers, minute books, Annual Returns, photographs etc. If you would like a safe environment where they will be looked after, please contact the Museum team via email museum@sja.org.uk  to discuss the best steps for them to further secure our legacy.

Thank you for taking an interest in the Archives Revealed Project; we do hope that you enjoy the catalogue when it is published later this year.

We will be launching a public-facing catalogue of all the records catalogued as part of the Archives Revealed project in late summer this year, so keep your eyes peeled over the coming months for more information!