From left to right: Lady Fiona Barttelot, Caroline Lucas, Lady Emma Barnard, Katie Holmes, Peter Field, Maureen Chowen, Quenelda Avery, Trevor Moss and Liz Harper celebrating St John Ambulance in Sussex in the Great Hall at Parham140 years of the St John Ambulance tradition was celebrated at their 2017 Sussex Awards. These annual awards celebrate outstanding achievement and service by the volunteers and this year they were hosted by Lady Emma Barnard, The High Sheriff of West Sussex, at her Sussex home, Parham House.
The St John Ambulance Sussex volunteers were treated to time in Parham’s walled gardens before being welcomed by Lady Emma Barnard in Parham’s Elizabethan Great Hall for the awards.
At the heart of the organisation are the Order’s mottos ‘Pro fide’ and ‘Proutilitate hominium’ – ‘For the Faith and in the service of humanity’. As their Sussex Chaplain I offered prayers for the work of the St John Ambulance in Sussex and the Order of St John.
The presentations were led by The Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Peter Field, and Lady Fiona Barttelot, representing Mrs Susan Pyper the Lord-Lieutenant of West Sussex. They were supported in their duties by the High Sheriffs of East and West Sussex, Maureen Chowen and Lady Emma Barnard. The Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex Cadet, Katie Holmes, was proud to be at the heart of the awards together with Sussex County President Caroline Lucas, Chairman, Quenelda Avery, District Manager, Trevor Moss and Regional Director, Liz Harper.
Jean-Pierre Ball was given a Chief Executive’s Commendation Award for exceptional service to our county and St John Ambulance by Lady Emma Barnard.
Amongst the many long service awards were three volunteers, Linda Hickman, Christine McIntyre and John Wright, from the Bognor Regis Unit, who earlier in the evening had delighted in their time in Lady Emma’s gardens.
The Awards were followed by a garden party in the marquee.
It is remarkable to reflect that St John Ambulance pre-dates the National Health Service by 70 years. A uniformed organisation, its volunteers can be readily identified by the eight-pointed Maltese Cross which they wear proudly.
140 years on St John Ambulance continues to be dedicated to the teaching and practice of medical first aid and the provision of ambulance services through volunteer units rooted in their local communities. There is much to celebrate in their work and they are deserving of our thanks. If you would like to learn first aid, join or support St John Ambulance in Sussex look up your local unit headquarters and pop along.
By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.