St John Association of Trinidad & Tobago

Who we are

St John Ambulance was introduced to Trinidad and Tobago in 1951 by Major Ronald Cox (the chief of the local Fire Brigade) and members of the Chamber of Commerce. Major Cox had been displeased with the existing ambulances at that time and ran a newspaper advert to attracted recruits. The advert began:

“WANTED:  600 men – good and true to form the St John Ambulance Brigade, a uniformed voluntary first aid body to help the injured and the sick.”

The first division in Tobago was launched and First Aid training commenced in 1954. The organisation is divided into three areas:  North, South and Tobago, each under an Area Commissioner. 

The National Headquarters is a specially designed building on the Wrightson Road Extension in Port of Spain. The corner stone was laid in 1975 by His Excellency, Sir Ellis Clarke, then President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The Southern Headquarters is in San Fernando and was completely rebuilt in 1995.

Trinidad and Tobago at a glance

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American nation of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It also shares maritime boundaries with Barbados to the northeast and Guyana to the southeast. The country covers an area of 5,128 square kilometers and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and 21 smaller islands. Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the main islands; Tobago is much smaller, comprising about 6% of the total area and 4% of the population. The population in 2005 was 1.3 million people and the capital city is the Port of Spain.

Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago is a primarily an industrialised country whose economy is based on petroleum and petrochemicals. Agricultural products include sugar cane, citrus, cocoa, and other products. Sugar cane was and continues to be a prominent crop of Trinidad.

What we do

Public Duties:   

The Association has a number of ambulances donated by local businesses, Rotary, St John Canada and the British High Commission. It attends major public events to provide First Aid care to the general public.

Band: 

There is a District Drum and Bugle band, which was started in 1954.