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St Johns Ambulance Brigade go to War

St Johns Ambulance

This Then and Now image shows the officers and men of the St Johns Ambulance Brigade standing outside of their former Hastings headquarters. The original photograph was taken in August 1914 shortly before the entire brigade of twenty men left Hastings for Devonport. From there they would have formed part of the Royal Army Medical Corps along with members of the Red Cross, Friends Ambulance Unit and hundreds of other voluntary or charitable organisations.

I don’t know much more about this group of men. If anyone can provide some information please do so via the comments area below.

The building they are standing by is by the junction of Albert Road and Castle Hill Road, near Wellington Square. I remember it being the restaurant Googlebury’s, and it has also been a tattoo parlour.

This image is part of a series of Then and Now images I’ve created for East Sussex Council’s World War 1 commemoration website. The website is focussed on the contribution that the men and women of East Sussex made towards the war effort. The source for the original images I’ve used for this series is scans of the Hastings and St Leonards Pictorial Advertiser.

The two photographs used to create the image above can be seen below:

St Johns Ambulance

St Johns Ambulance

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