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International
Contacts and Recognition
Support from Orders of St John
Through the intervention of
Professor Dr Walter G Rödel, a Knight Commander of Justice of
the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Chivalric Order of the
Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the German
Johanniterorden, the Corps initially received a significant
amount of equipment and uniforms from the Director of Civil
Defence of the City of Mainz, Mr Jürgen Franz.
This donation in 1991 helped the
Corps to start its operations and training programme.
It was through the influence of
the Lord Mayor of Mainz, that Marquis Buttigieg De Piro could
take with him over a period of five years, three groups of
thirty officers and leaders of the St John Rescue Corps, to the
Federal German Civil Defence Staff Training School in Ahrweiler,
Germany. The Ahrweiler Training School is very realistically
staged with disaster areas, and the most recent sophisticated
rescue equipment. The German national airline Lufthansa also
subsidised the air travel involved.
A year later, Major-General
Michael J H Walsh CB DSO DL KStJ, then Director of Overseas
Relations of St John Ambulance in London, also acquired ladders
and other special equipment for the Corps from the British Fire
Service and the British Army. Major-General Walsh is presently
the President of the St John Rescue Corps, whilst
Anthony The
Marquis Buttigieg De Piro
is the Vice-President.
The State Police of the City of
Karlsrühe, through the good offices of Colonel Heinz Meyer, also
donated some very useful equipment. Through the personal
initiative of His Excellency Bailiff Don Carlo Marullo The Count
of Condojanni and Prince of Casalnuovo, then the Grand
Chancellor of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St
John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (SMOM), the Order
donated a vehicle and other equipment to the Corps.
The St. John Rescue Corps are
currently in the process of a twinning agreement with the
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in the United Kingdom.
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