The Order of Saint John was chartered as an order of chivalry by Queen Victoria in 1888. It claims to trace its origins back to the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages, which was later known as the Order of Malta. A faction emerged in France in the 1820s and moved to Britain in the early 1830s, where it became associated with the foundation of the St John Ambulance Association in 1877 (to provide first aid training to railwaymen and colliers), the St John Ophthalmic Hospital (near the old city of Jerusalem) in 1882, and the St John Ambulance Brigade (to provide practical first aid at public events) in 1887.
The Association and Brigade merged in 1968, and the joint organisation became known simply as St. John Ambulance.
© Haydn Thompson 2023