Sympathy, a Ford Model ‘A’ Ambulance purpose-built in 1929, is one of the oldest surviving motorised ambulances in the country, and a treasured piece of history for St John Ambulance, the nation’s leading first aid charity since 1877.
Over the past thirty years Sympathy has played a flagship role in promoting St John Ambulance, its history and work by attending public events nationwide, including national and local car shows, youth celebration events, living history events, steam rallies and Emergency Services days. This vehicle is treasured across the organisation as well as externally, but after so many years she was in urgent need of further restoration to be able to continue her public engagement work.
In 2023, St John Ambulance was awarded a grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology to restore Sympathy. Combined with further financial support from Holman Fleet UK, this enabled us to carry out vital mechanical repairs and renew her paintwork, bringing her back to how she would have looked when first built.
Sympathy has an interesting history, having been part of some important periods of development for both healthcare and ambulance transport in England. This blog will explore the vehicle’s almost 100 years of service – from the early beginnings as part of the Home Ambulance Service in Sidmouth, through to her work during the London Blitz and finally a new life as a promotional vehicle for St John Ambulance.
Home Ambulance Service
In 1919, the Joint Council of the Order of St John and the British Red Cross Society decided to establish a service to help meet the need for an ‘unbroken’ range of ambulance stations throughout the country. A Home Service Ambulance Committee was appointed to control and work a scheme to provide around 500 ambulances, in the service of the sick and injured.
The Committee planned for all counties to coordinate the ambulances in their area, with the ambulances being mainly operated and maintained by qualified and trained attendants from the St John Ambulance Brigade or the Red Cross.
By 29 October 1919, 296 ambulances were allotted, with 171 delivered. This growth continued well into the 1920s, with the ambulances carrying an average of 1500 patients a week in 1925 – proof of the usefulness of the Service. That same year, the Committee noted the excellent work carried out by the ambulances all over the country, and the chairman particularly drew attention to “the value of the ambulances in promoting and encouraging the acquisition of first aid knowledge and their stimulative effect on the work of the voluntary aid units in their immediate neighbourhood.” The ambulances incentivised St John volunteers by bringing them into close and direct contact with members of the public who needed their help. At this point, about two-thirds of the Committee’s ambulances were controlled by Divisions of the Order or of the Society. It was the Committee’s desire that eventually all their ambulances should come under similar control.
In 1929, the Committee allocated a motor ambulance to the St John Ambulance Brigade in Sidmouth in Devon, for use around the Sid Valley District. The Sidmouth Division was established in 1927, following a fatal road accident in the town. It was felt the death may have been avoided if a local ambulance had been available, and just over thirty men enrolled for membership straight away.
History of Sympathy
Sympathy was manufactured in 1929 at Ford’s Manchester Works in Old Trafford. Similar in model to other ambulances commissioned by the Home Ambulance Service at the time, this particular vehicle was dark green and cost £250 to build, plus £9-9s for insurance. The vehicle was dedicated on 18 June 1929 in Sidmouth and given the name Sympathy.
The new ambulance was kept very busy. In the five months to October 1929 there were 24 calls involving seven road accidents, three domestic accidents and fourteen injured transported to hospital, and a total distance of 587 1/2 miles was travelled.
Sympathy was first based at Hodges Garage in Russell Street. The owner, known locally as ‘Taxi Hodge’, shared the driving with two Sidmouth division members, Elliot Breach and Arthur Irish. The rules drawn up for the vehicle’s use stipulated that it had to be available for service day or night. In those days, St John ambulances carried patients to hospital after emergency first aid. There was no life support equipment on board – only a canvas stretcher.
After spending her first ten years serving in Sidmouth, Sympathy was transferred to London and operated as a rescue vehicle during the Second World War, rescuing casualties from bombed buildings in the City of London and the East End. Consequently, she was affixed with a high-output dynamo to ensure reliable lighting at night. Rescuing people from the horrific bombing contributed to the wear and tear of the ambulance, so after many years of intensive and exceptional service, Sympathy was decommissioned and sold in 1947 to William Rutter, a farmer near Axminster. He re-registered the ambulance as an agricultural goods vehicle and used it for heavy farm work for the next nine years, until the engine blew a gasket, and the vehicle was finally taken off the road and parked in a field – neglected and in later years, forgotten.
First Restoration
In the 1980s, the ambulance was re-discovered on a farm where she was being used as a chicken shed. Volunteers from St John Ambulance recovered the vehicle and subsequently undertook major restoration work to restore Sympathy to her original condition.
A restoration committee was put together, with Lord Montagu of Beaulieu as president, and a charitable trust laid the foundation for the restoration with a very generous donation by the Cork Trust. This enabled Sympathy to be collected from the farm and work to begin, with engineering company Astra Holdings PLC in Grantham agreeing to take her on as a project for its apprentices.
In 1988, she was collected and shipped to the Lincolnshire. When she arrived, the senior training supervisor was taken aback. He described the state of the vehicle as ‘a right mess’. Mice had been nesting in the seized engine, the chassis was covered in rust, some of it so far gone that it needed renewing, and the wooden body was full of woodworm and rot.
Work started on carefully dismantling, labelling and researching, and once the project became known, some tremendous help was offered from both inside the company and from other enthusiasts. Slowly, Sympathy began to take shape, but what started as a year’s projects stretched into nearly two years.
Finally, on 27 April 1990, 61 years after she was first commissioned, Sympathy was handed back to the Order of St John and accepted on its behalf by the Grand Prior of the Order of St John HRH the Duke of Gloucester. She was rededicated to service with St John Ambulance and two months later became a television star as she proudly headed the St John contingent in the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday parade.
New Life
Since 1990, Sympathy has become a fixture during St John events, a popular presence for people around the country. Although maintained well, having the ambulance out and about had an impact on both the external bodywork as well as the mechanics. To get her back to her former glory and ensure she’s safe and stable to be driven, restoration was required.
St John Ambulance was delighted to be awarded a Restoration Grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology to carry out the restoration. The AIA mission is to promote the value of industrial archaeology and heritage and support the preservation of industrial heritage assets, including vehicles like this.
When restoring the vehicle, the decision was made to bring the livery back to how it would have been originally, acknowledging her roots in the Home Ambulance Service. This enables us to showcase the ambulance’s full history.
Further financial support from Holman Fleet UK ensured the restoration completed at the beginning of this year, and we’re excited to see Sympathy back on the road once more, ready to promote St John Ambulance and its lifesaving work for many years to come.
