Posted by Mike on April 27, 2001 at 21:19:50:
In Reply to: Re: Knights of Malta posted by murrisk on April 26, 2001 at 01:10:39:
The order of Malta (presume its the same organisation) hold collections sometimes and AFIK they get some donations from Businesses and the Council (not sure about that one)
They operate a sort of auxillary ambulance service, train people (mostly kids) on how to do first aid, and provide a presence of qualified first aiders at sporting and other events.
Apparently they were originally established by the Catholic Church during the crusades(I think this is how they differ from St John's) although nowadays AFIK membership is open to anyone.
Dont quote me on the above I just used to know someone who was a member.
http://www.kwtelecom.com/heraldry/stjohn/index.html
http://www.knightlyorders.org/uksmom.html