SINCE THE CRUSADES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 563, 16 January 1929, Page 16

SINCE THE CRUSADES

HISTORY OF ST. JOHN AMBULANCE SIR J. HEWETT’S LECTURE The history and the work of the St. John Ambulance Brigade were explained last evening at a lecture in the concert chamber of the Town Hall by Sir John Prescott Hewett, leader of the English St. John ambulance delegation. Members of the Auckland brigade and the nursing divisions attended in uniform. Sir John said that the Order of St. John was the oldest order of chivalry, i The origin of its name—the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem , —was in the time of the crusades ! Linder Peter the Hermit. The community of monks in the hospital at Jerusalem developed into the greatest order of chivalry. The Knights Templar, a military order, was founded, and, under the patronage of Popes, became powerful. In the middle of the 12th century, the knights of the hospital were firmly established in England. The struggle of the Knights of St. John with the Saracens was described. In England, the order flourished under Papal patronage until the reign of Henry VIII. In 1540 the order was dissolved, but, in 1871, after a movement to restore the order, a new constitution, similar to the present one, was adopted. In the men’s brigades and in the nursing divisions, there were now 50,000 members. Mrs. St. John Atkinson, Sir John’s sister, gave ~ the impression she received at a pilgrimage in 1926 to the historic places connected with the order. Lantern slides added to the in- | terest of her addreess. j Before the lecture, the delegation inspected the Auckland brigade at the Rutland Street headquarters. This morning it left for Wanganui, Wellington and the South Island. A conference will be attended in Wellington and the delegation will probably leave for England on February 12.