Age of Empire

St. John Ambulance began in the days of empire and quickly spread to Britain's overseas colonies.

The British Order of St. John has always had strong royal connections.  Indeed it was Queen Victoria who, in 1888, made it a Royal Order of Chivalry and became its Sovereign Head.  Victoria ruled the largest empire the world has ever known and the Order saw it as part of its role to spread western medical practice in the colonies.  A branch of St. John Ambulance was also seen as a way of encouraging local people to learn British "values and virtues”: whether in India, Hong Kong or Australia, it was like a little bit of Britain.

But the First Aid message was to prove more permanent than the empire. As in Britain, St. John Ambulance classes often developed in workplaces; on the railways; among police; at the docks.  They also took root in diverse cultures because manuals were printed in local languages and aimed at particular communities. So, where St. John Ambulance met local needs it stayed on after the British left, and today it is active in over 40 countries across the world.