At the turn of the century, St John Ambulance (SJA) was facing a growing operational challenge in London. Congestion across the capital, together with access restrictions in event footprints such as the Royal Parks, was making it harder for ambulances to reach casualties quickly. Ambulances were often requested on the basis of limited information, and crews could struggle to locate casualties. On occasion, by the time an ambulance arrived, the casualty had already moved on.
The need was clear: SJA had to find a way of getting someone to a reported casualty quickly, either to provide immediate treatment or to report back with accurate information. Its first response was the creation of the Forward Incident Team, known as the FIT Team and now called the Medical Response Team (MRT). The FIT Team was regarded as a success and continues to operate today. Its limitation, however, was range. It could only reach as far as its members could walk or run.
SJA was also aware of the London Ambulance Service Cycle Response Unit (LAS CRU), founded in 2000 under the leadership of Tom Lynch MBE MStJ. By 2002, SJA in London was seriously exploring whether it should establish a CRU of its own. Seamus Kelly OBE KStJ, then Commissioner for London, asked John Newman to look into the idea.
John Newman MBE CStJ was both a lifelong volunteer and a paid employee at National Headquarters, where he was responsible for volunteering development and projects at the time. He would later become responsible for, among other things, setting up Community First Responders and providing first aid leadership for Lord’s Cricket Ground for many years. His wife, Sandra, was also active in SJA and was involved with the CRU for a brief period.
John was supported by Alan O’Brian, a keen early CRU volunteer who later joined the Metropolitan Police, and by Ashley Sweetland, then working as a student intern one day a week at NHQ. Ashley wrote the first, second and third SJA cycling policies. He had originally joined SJA as a Badger, had been Cadet of the Year in 2000 and was a member of LINKS, the SJA organisation for university students. He also had a strong cycling background. His father was a head teacher who had run local Cycling Proficiency schemes, and Ashley himself was keen on BMX. As a teenager, he had followed the exploits of Tom Lynch, then a British BMX champion and later head of the LAS CRU.
The early discussions were practical as well as strategic. What equipment should the unit carry? What sort of uniform would be suitable? How could bikes be kept secure, and would theft become a serious problem? Fortunately, the loss of bikes never became the issue some had feared.
Seamus Kelly made the case to the St John Council for London, the equivalent of today’s Regional Priory Teams, for an initial start-up budget. Progress was helped by a happy accident. John Newman and Tom Lynch both attended an Ambulance Service Institute seminar, where Tom was due to give a presentation on the recently founded LAS CRU. When the presentation would not work on Tom’s laptop, John lent him his. The incident brought the two men together. Tom offered to help John, invited him to visit the LAS CRU and introduced him to Smart Biker, which made the LAS bikes, and to Openhouse, based in Liverpool, which supplied the panniers.
Tom also introduced John and Ashley to IPMBA, the International Police Mountain Bike Association, whose qualifications included an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) stream. A small SJA group subsequently travelled to York for an IPMBA course led by North Yorkshire Police. One memorable exercise involved a night ride through York with about 30 cyclists. Suddenly, the group accelerated and raced towards the centre of town. The ride leader had responded to a “Suspects on Scene” call on his police radio. The supposed villains must have been surprised when 30 bikes appeared outside the shop. In fact, they turned out not to be villains at all, but staff working late on overtime.
John and Ashley consulted Tom and prospective members about uniform, which was based on the LAS design, and sought advice from the Cyclists’ Touring Club, now Cycling UK, on basic training. Bikeability Level 3 became the entry qualification for the new unit. There were originally about a dozen members, recruited through word of mouth, information circulated to divisions and articles in the cycling press. All were already SJA members and belonged to other units.
The first meetings were held at York Street, then London District HQ, before the unit moved to Friend Street, then the SJA logistics base, where it met on Monday evenings. Monday was chosen because few other divisions met that night. The bikes were stored downstairs and the unit met in a small first-floor meeting room. The fleet grew gradually, from four bikes to six, then eight and later twelve.
The bikes themselves presented a challenge. There was no suitable off-the-peg model. The unit needed custom kickstands, reinforced rear wheels and panniers capable of carrying an oxygen cylinder. Advice was again sought from the LAS CRU. The first bikes came from Smart Biker, which also supplied LAS and the City of London Police. When Smart Biker closed, the CRU turned to Specialized bikes. The panniers came from Openhouse in Liverpool. At first, only rear panniers were fitted, but as the unit’s equipment increased, front panniers were added. This proved popular because it increased storage space and improved handling. In effect, SJA had to help create a market for its specialist needs, working with suppliers such as Endura for uniforms, Openhouse for panniers, and Smart Biker and later Specialized for bikes.
Nobody can now remember with certainty when the first CRU duty took place, but it was probably the London Marathon on 17 April 2005. Four cycle responders were also mobilised on 7 July for the London bombings. Early on, the unit began covering runs and other duties in parks such as Richmond Park and Bushy Park, which remain regular “bread and butter” CRU duties.
There was early proof of the CRU’s value when a woman collapsed at Queen Mother’s Gate in Hyde Park. An ambulance was stationed at Marble Arch but was held up by traffic. CRU volunteers were on another duty at Admiralty Arch, yet reached the casualty first, well ahead of the ambulance.
Another early duty was Chelsea’s homecoming parade after the club won the Premier League. The team travelled through the area around Stamford Bridge on open-topped buses, with the crowd moving as the buses progressed. Bikes were particularly well suited to the event because ambulances had limited usefulness in such a crowded and fluid environment. At that time, CRU members spent a great deal of time showing their bikes to other SJA members and to the public. “Oh, I didn’t know St John had bicycles” was a constant refrain.
Over time, the level of training expected of cycle responders increased. The original requirement was a basic fitness test and Bikeability Level 3. Later, the IPMBA qualification became expected, before being replaced in turn by the Public Service Cycling (PSC) qualification, which Tom Lynch had established.
The CRU’s organisational structure was similar to that of a London District division, with an officer in charge and officers responsible for duties, training and equipment. Initially, all members were seconded from other divisions. There was no formal decision to allow people to make the CRU their home unit; it simply developed that way. Because the structure resembled that of a normal SJA division, the change was easy to accommodate.
After around a year and a half of operational activity, John Newman stood aside as unit manager. Following a couple of short-term appointments, recruitment began for a permanent successor. There were several expressions of interest, but only one internal candidate: Ashley Sweetland, then the Duties Officer. Although younger than many of the members, he was seen by those in the unit as the obvious choice and was eventually appointed.
Ashley is often regarded within the unit as the CRU’s second founder. He led it for 15 years in London and, for a period, nationally, and helped establish the systems and leadership succession that allowed the unit to continue developing after he stepped back from day-to-day command.
Ashley, working with Tom Lynch, secured the CRU’s permanent co-location at London Ambulance Service headquarters, having previously achieved a similar arrangement with the City of London Police before their old building closed. Ashley also invited Tom to become President of the London SJA CRU, cementing the strength of the partnership, and signed a partnership memorandum that was proudly displayed at LAS HQ in Waterloo.
Much of the CRU as it exists today reflects the approach Ashley established. He brought discipline and structure to the unit, tightening procedures and training. For example, the unit had previously had a reputation for arriving late at duties; under his command, it was expected to arrive on time and prepared.
His approach centred on standardisation and predictability. The aim was for all bikes to be similar and similarly equipped, and for all cycle responders to have comparable training. This became increasingly important as CRUs spread to other parts of the country, with riders coming into London to support major duties such as the London Marathon, and London members travelling to events elsewhere, including the Great North Run. In London, at least, centralisation was another defining feature. Bikes and first aid equipment were kept in one place, making it easier for the newly formed mechanics team to check the bikes, carry out minor repairs, replenish kit and maintain standards.
The CRU was taking on an increasing number of duties, but there was little further recruitment until 2010, when a major push brought in members from both within and outside SJA. The 2010 intake came to be remembered as one of the unit’s strongest: ten people were recruited, five of whom remain in the CRU.
In the years that followed, the CRU became increasingly visible and recognised as an integral part of what SJA could offer. Ashley was keen for the unit to be seen in that way. An environmental march became the first duty to be commanded from a bicycle, and the unit began to take on more specialist roles. One example was the Cabbage Patch 10, a competitive ten-mile run between Twickenham and Richmond. Local divisions could cover most of the route, but two miles along the Thames Path were unreachable by ambulance. The CRU was called in to provide cover for that section.
Gradually, the CRU ceased to be a novelty. It became one of the resources people expected to see at major events, alongside treatment centres, foot patrols and ambulances.
What really put the CRU on the map was 2012, with Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. SJA had expected to be the major supplier of first aid for the Olympics, but LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, decided to provide first aid in-house. SJA still covered events outside the Olympic Park, including the big screens in Victoria Park and Hyde Park. In the event, the CRU was the only London SJA unit to hold a contract directly with LOCOG, covering the Greenway between West Ham Underground Station and the Olympic Park. Most CRU members took leave for the period of the Games, working a demanding pattern of three days on and one day off.
After the Olympics, it was assumed that the CRU could relax and that its commitments would return to normal. That never happened. The following year was almost as busy as 2012, and the unit has remained busy ever since. What began as a practical response to congestion, distance and access challenges in London had become an established and enduring part of SJA’s event response.
A guest blogpost by St John Ambulance volunteer, Charles Harvey MStJ, Support Member, London CRU.
Sources: Recorded oral history interviews with John Newman, Ashley Sweetland, Charles Harvey and Neil Studd. Recordings held at the Museum of the Order of St John. Telephone interview with Seamus Kelly. All interviews were conducted in 2024.