annual service of rededication Order of St John St Hohn Historyenduring faith Awkward Hours, Awkward Jobs Capitular Procession of the Priory in Australia Christ Church Anglican Cathedral Frank Dunstan MStJ Darwin Historical Society of Australia annual service of rededication Order of St John St Hohn Historyenduring faith THE JOURNAL OF THE ST JOHN AMBULANCE HISTORICALCapitular SOCIETY Procession OF AUSTRALIA of the Priory in Australia Christ ChurchVOLUME Anglican 14, 2014 Cathedral ‘Preserving and promoting the St John heritage’ Historical Society of Australia Darwin Frank Dunstan MStJ Awkward Hours, Awkward Jobs The front cover of St John History Volume 14 shows the members of the Order of St John who took part in the Capitular Procession of the Priory in Australia at their annual service of rededication in Christ Church Capitular Procession of the Priory in Australia Anglican Cathedral in Darwin on Sunday 2 June 2013. enduring faith The members of the Order are pictured outside the porch of the cathedral, which is all that remains of the original structure built and consecrated in 1902. Constructed from the local red limestone, the original Christ Church Anglican Cathedral cathedral was damaged during a Japanese air raid in February 1942. After that the Australian military forces annual service of rededication used the building until the end of the war. Cyclone Tracy destroyed everything but the porch of the repaired cathedral in December 1974. Order of St John The new cathedral, built around and behind the porch, was consecrated in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Donald Coggan, on 13 March 1977. Several weeks later, Queen Elizabeth St Hohn History II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Cathedral during that year’s Royal Visit celebrating the 25th Awkward Hours, Awkward Jobs anniversary of her reign. The cathedral porch today reminds Darwin residents and tourists of the vicissitudes of settlement in Australia’s ‘Top End’ over the past century. It is also an emblem of the enduring faith of the Christian community of the Capitular Procession of the Priory in Australia Northern Territory. Because of its setting, the front cover picture resonates with the leading article in this edition. The article, Christ Church Anglican Cathedral by Frank Dunstan MStJ, the Northern Territory St John historian, deals with the colourful history of St John Historical Society of Australia Ambulance Australia in the Territory as recorded in his book Awkward Hours, Awkward Jobs (St John NT, Frank Dunstan MStJ 2013). The book was launched at Government House, Darwin, on Friday 31 May 2013. Darwin ISSN 1445-7490 St John History cover 14.indd 1 23/05/2014 11:48 am ‘Preserving and promoting the St John heritage’ St John History is the annual journal of the Historical Society, and is provided gratis to all financial members of the Society. Correspondence about articles in the journal should be directed to the Editor, Dr Ian Howie-Willis. Queries about distribution of the Journal should be sent to the National Membership Officer: St John Ambulance Historical Society of Australia St John Ambulance Australia PO Box 292, Deakin West ACT 2603 Information about the Historical Society may be obtained from the executive officers: President: Dr Allan Mawdsley Treasurer: Mr Gary Harris [email protected] [email protected] Secretary: Mr James Cheshire Editor: Dr Ian Howie-Willis [email protected] [email protected] 02 6231 4071 Deputy Secretary: Dr Edith Khangure [email protected] Queries about membership to your historical society should be sent to your State/Territory Membership Officer. Overseas and Australian Capital Territory South Australia Dr Ian Howie-Willis Dr Brian Fotheringham Editor Chair, St John Historical Society of SA St John Ambulance Australia St John Ambulance Australia (SA) PO Box 292, Deakin West ACT 2600 85 Edmund Avenue, Unley SA 5066 [email protected] [email protected] New South Wales Tasmania Ms Loredana Napoli Ms Roxy Cowie Information Management Coordinator Chief Executive Officer St John Ambulance Australia (NSW) St John Ambulance Australia (Tas) 9 Deane Street, Burwood NSW 2134 177 Main Road [email protected] Moonah TAS 7009 [email protected] Northern Territory Mrs Dawn Bat Victoria Historical Society Membership Secretary Mr Gary Harris PO Box 72, Nyah VIC 3594 Historical Society Membership Officer (Mrs Bat’s Victorian postal address) St John Ambulance Australia (Vic) Inc. [email protected] PO Box 573, Mount Waverley VIC 3149 [email protected] Queensland Ms Beth Dawson Western Australia Chair, History and Heritage Committee Dr Edith Khangure St John Ambulance Australia (Qld) Librarian and Archivist PO Box 1645, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 St John Ambulance Australia (WA) Inc. [email protected] PO Box 183, Belmont WA 6194 [email protected] The History Journal Volumes 1–13 are available as PDFs on the national St John Ambulance Australia website, stjohn.org.au/about St John History cover 14.indd 2 23/05/2014 11:48 am St John History Proceedings of the St John Ambulance Historical Society of Australia Volume 14, 2014 Editor: Ian Howie-Willis (Historical Advisor, St John Ambulance Australia) Contents Introduction St John History: about Volume 14, 2014 1 Papers of the Society’s 2013 History Seminar, Darwin, Northern Territory Frank Dunstan Reflections on the official history of St John in the Northern Territory. 2 John Waingut Fifty years of St John Ambulance in Papua New Guinea. 5 Maria Godwell The 75th anniversary of the Fremantle Cadet Division. 10 Beth Dawson and ‘Rich in good works’: The life and times of Mary Griffith. 17 John Pearn Ian Howie-Willis William Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley: Australia’s first 23 gubernatorial KStJ. Allan Mawdsley Regal and Vice-Regal patronage in St John Ambulance Australia. 29 Trevor Mayhew St John Ambulance Brigade in the South African 39 (Boer) War, 1899–1902. Mark Compton Receivers-General of the Australian Priory and Commandery. 48 Lynette Dansie Australian Cadet camps: A continuing history. 53 David Fahey Oxygen. The history of its discovery and therapeutic use. 62 John Pearn and Pie Postulatio Voluntatis: The Papal Bull of 1113. 70 Ian Howie-Willis James Cheshire Knights and Dame of Justice of the Order of St John. 74 John Pearn ‘First, Do No Harm!’ The origins of Primum non nocere. 86 Occasional papers Sarah McLaughlin An entrée into a nursing career from the St John Cadets. 93 Ian Howie-Willis Representations of the monastic military orders in popular literature: 95 ‘History’ as presented in the modern blockbuster novel. Contents continued Reports from the State and territory branches of the Historical Society St John Ambulance Archives New South Wales, Loredana Napoli and Betty Stirton. 99 Northern Territory St John Ambulance Historical Committee, Dawn Bat. 100 The Priory and the Australian Capital Territory, Ian Howie-Willis. 101 The History and Heritage Committee, Queensland, Beth Dawson. 102 St John Historical Society of South Australia, Brian Fotheringham. 103 St John Ambulance Historical Society of Victoria, Shirley Moon. 104 The Ian Kaye-Eddie Heritage Centre, Western Australia, Edith Khangure. 105 Introduction St John History: about Volume 14, 2014 St John History is the annual journal of the St John Ambulance Historical Society of Australia. Most of the articles in this edition, Volume 14, began as papers presented to the Society’s fifteenth annual History Seminar in Darwin on Friday 31 May, 2013. This edition also contains the reports of the State and Territory branches of the Historical Society tabled at the Society’s Annual General Meeting in Darwin the next day, Saturday 1 June, 2013. As usual, the History Seminar and the Annual General Meeting were held in conjunction with the annual national Members’ Convention of St John Ambulance Australia. Both the History Seminar and the Annual General Meeting were organised by the Historical Society’s Secretary, Mr James Cheshire OStJ, with characteristic élan and efficiency. In planning both events, he was supported by the Society’s President, Dr Allan Mawdsley KStJ, and Deputy Secretary, Dr Edith Khangure CStJ. Dr Mawdsley introduced and concluded the seminar, while Dr Khangure chaired both seminar sessions. The seminar’s keynote paper was delivered by Mr Frank Dunstan MStJ, the historian of St John Ambulance in the Northern Territory, whose authoritative history, Awkward Hours, Awkward Jobs: A History of St John Ambulance in the Northern Territory 1915–2012, was launched during the Darwin Members’ Convention. Mr Dunstan’s paper is the leading article in this edition of St John History. Another special article in this edition is the second one: ‘Fifty Years of St John in Papua New Guinea’ by Mr John Waingut MBE, the Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of St John Ambulance Papua New Guinea. Mr Waingut was not the first international visitor to address an Historical Society seminar; however, his was a particularly welcome face among the panel of presenters. As his article reminds us, Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour and much shared history bind our two nations together. In addition to the 13 articles included in this volume of St John History two Occasional Papers are also presented. Such papers have been included because they come within the scope of the Journal even if they were not presented to the Society’s annual seminar. I trust that readers of this edition of the Journal will conclude that, like the volumes preceding it, Volume 14 demonstrates how the Historical Society does much to ‘Preserve and Promote the St John Heritage’ through its annual seminar series. As the Society’s informal motto suggests, preserving and promoting the St John heritage are chief among its objectives. The range and diversity of the articles that now follow show how active the Society has been in achieving that objective.