50 years ago

A PUBLIC meeting has been called to try to form a St. John Ambulance Brigade in Hamilton. Glenelg District Ambulance Service has called the meeting for July 15. It will be held at the ambulance station in Foster St at 8pm. Service superintendent, Mr Alan Dalby said yesterday he believed Hamilton needed a voluntary brigade. The organisation is well established in other parts of Victoria and in some centres of the Western District. The St. John brigade comes from the ancient Order of St John. By legend, this order developed from a pilgrim’s hospice established in Jerusalem in 600AD by Abbot Probus, at the wish of Pope Gregory the Great. Nearly 400 years later, it was destroyed. Another 13 years later, merchants of a small Southern Italy town restored it.