In November 2025, we announced our success in receiving an AIM Museum Fundamentals grant funded by the Pilgrim Trust and The Julia Rausing Trust to address our collection of photographic prints (more information here). In this blog post, the project team have chosen to feature some of their recent favourite photographic finds.
Pat (Project Volunteer)
I am working on the program looking after the photographs in the Archive. Working with Sophie, Felix, Joyce and Sean, we have seen many, many photographs that are a true reflection of St John Ambulance and its history, some of which has caused great discussion. It is hard to pick one picture to talk about, but the one that has “piqued” my interest is this, a black and white picture taken in 1950 or 1951 of the Horsham Nursing Division (Sussex) taking part in a parade at Chichester. This picture shows a (female) Division that has forty-six Nursing Members marching past during an inspection.
I like this picture as it shows the commitment and pride these ladies had when marching proudly in their smart uniforms. I also like the detail that someone has written on the back of the picture to help us to reference it for future generations “Supt. Miss M. Young (leading). Nursing Officer. Miss M Gardner S.R.N (wearing square bibbed apron). N/M Mrs. Miss H. Craven (Donor of uniforms) (right marker of squad). N/M Mrs. D. Holland (left flank first row behind Nursing Officer)”.
Joyce (Project Volunteer)
The photograph that I would like to bring to light contrasts with the one Pat has written about. Not in content, but in the information available to place the photograph in context and help tell the story of the event being recorded.
This black and white photograph shows twelve very smartly presented Nursing Cadets with two adult Nursing Members of St John Ambulance Brigade. There is no information at all accompanying the photograph to help locate or date the event being recorded. I am looking for clues as to the reasons that the photograph was taken, when it was taken and where. Help in filling out some information about this photograph, through the blog comments section, would be appreciated.
Formal group photographs can sometimes not allow the characters of the individuals pictured to show through. However, the reason I really like this photograph is because the characters of the young Nursing Cadets do shine through. Some look shy, some very cheerful, and others quietly confident. It would be wonderful to find out where and why this picture was taken. But unless, very luckily, someone recognises a person in the photograph, this is probably going to be very hard. A rough date might be possible though. The St John Ambulance Brigade Cadets were founded in March 1922. The Gateshead Saltwell Nursing Cadets are the first Division formed on 25th May 1922. To my unexperienced eye, the Nursing Cadet uniform looked very constant through the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Any eagle-eyed uniform experts out there that can help reduce this date range?
Sean (Project Volunteer)
I came across this photo showing two members of St John Ambulance Scotland Highland Region mounted on horseback. I find this photo very interesting for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, St John Scotland (SJS) has a relatively smaller footprint compared to our activities in England. This mostly dates back to an agreement from 1908 where St John Ambulance agreed to withdraw from training and ambulance activities in Scotland, in return for the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association withdrawing from England. As such, SJS has relatively little clinical activity, so finding this photograph was a welcome surprise. Secondly, the use of mounted horses is quite unique. Horse drawn ambulances and mounted responders have been a part of ambulance work since the 1800s, but to see a mounted medic in a relatively modern looking photograph is unique. We can’t definitively date this photograph, but considering the equipment the rider is carrying, it looks to be around the 1990s – well after mounted Divisions had been withdrawn across the rest of the countries. Finally, the environment suggests that this image is taken as part of a mountain rescue team (MRT). St John Scotland has supported other charitable volunteer MRTs since around the 1990s, mainly through vehicles and buildings. Whilst there is no record of SJS volunteers directly volunteering with MRT, it is not unfeasible that this may have happened at some point.
Part of St John Ambulance’s mission is making sure aid is available anywhere at any time. This is especially true for supporting rural communities, providing help where it would otherwise not be accessible.
Felix (Project Volunteer)
While St John Ambulance and its volunteers are known for the generosity with which they dispense care to those in need of it. It is also a fact that, like Tennessee Williams’ Blanche Dubois, we too rely on the kindness of strangers. Most volunteers will, at some point, have felt the (hopefully reassuringly hefty) weight of a collection bucket in their hands at one of our regular fundraising drives. Essential donations from the generous local communities we take great pride of serving, have, over the years, provided the training, equipment (such as our brand new ‘Heart’ defibrillators) and even ambulances that allow us to continue coming to the aid of those in need and to keep putting the power of First Aid in everyone’s hands.
This photograph stood out to me as a beautiful illustration of St John Ambulance’s integration within our local communities. The unbridled delight with which a new electric kettle and other ‘essentials’ for the local division are received by the Macclesfield Superintendent and Divisional Officer in 1977 are truly infectious. These gifts are presented by none other than that year’s ‘Rose Bud’ and ’Silk Queen,’ and were purchased with proceeds from the town’s carnival, which the community donated to benefit St John Ambulance, showing their awareness and appreciation of the sterling work done by its local volunteers.
Sophie (Archivist)
We really have seen some exciting and interesting photographs and each day I find a new favourite, so here are some of my recent favourite finds!
This photograph, taken at the royal review of the St John Ambulance Brigade in Hyde Park, London, in May 1956, shows the scale of the Brigade (and this isn’t even everyone!) In the last century, the Brigade regularly held large and small-scale reviews of its personnel; an opportunity for the volunteers to come together, scrub up well into their uniforms, and show pride in their lifesaving work. Royal reviews were a frequent event, with various members of the royal family attending reviews to see the volunteers. This photograph shows one such royal review, where a young Queen Elizabeth II came along to see Brigade members en masse in Hyde Park. In the photograph, you can, even though they are far away, see the different groups of the Ambulance Members (in dark uniforms) and the Nursing Members (in paler uniforms). It was such a spectacle that many members of the public came to see the event too, and you can see these onlookers gathered around the event site to watch. What is also quite fun is that you can see Battersea Power Station far away in the distance, echoing the vastness of the Brigade event with the vastness of London.
The 1913 Aerial Derby was an early spectacle of aircraft, which had taken place for the first time the previous year, where daredevil pilots flew a sizeable course in the sky over London and Surrey. In 1913, the course covered 94 mi (151 km), and the day had fine weather. Starting at 4pm sharp, eleven aircraft took off at one-minute intervals from the London Aerodrome at Hendon. The prizes were a Daily Mail trophy and a £200 prize (around £11,798 today), a trophy, and three prizes of £100, £70 and £25, were given by Shell for the winner of a the staggered competition. This photograph from the Museum’s collection shows one of the pilots fuelling his aircraft before the race, with a few interested St John Ambulance Brigade Ambulance Members in attendance, should anything go wrong. For more information on the 1913 Aerial Derby, check out this page from the Epsom & Ewell History Explorer.
Ambulances and ambulance vehicles are a key part of our organization (it’s even in the name!), and ambulance vehicles have come in all shapes and sizes over the years. Today, our ambulance vehicles are manufactured to be state-of-the-art, but in days gone by, ambulances were often created from the shell of a different vehicle. This photograph, shows some really excellent examples of an alternative kind of ambulance –Volkswagen Camper Vans! Here, Sir Malim Sorsbie, a former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and General Manager of Imperial Airways, is proudly donating some VW camper van ambulances to the St John Ambulance Brigade’s Commissioner for Kenya. Should I ever need to call for an ambulance, you bet I’d wish it was a camper van!
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This is an AIM (Association of Independent Museums) Museum Fundamentals project. AIM Museum Fundamentals funded by Pilgrim Trust and The Julia Rausing Trust.
