The Revd Desmond Kitto, MBE, KStJ, Minister of St Andrew’s United Reformed Church in Roath, Cardiff, gains award from St John Ambulance.
Revd Kitto, who joined St John Ambulance as a cadet aged 11 in 1961, has received the first aid charity’s Ultra Long Service Medal and bar, marking 55 years continuous service up to 2017.
St John Ambulance Cymru held services of Commemoration, Rededication, and Investiture on Saturday, in November at St Mary’s Priory Church Abergavenny in the presence of the Chancellor of the Order of St John, Dr Gillian Willmore, GCStJ and the Prior for Wales Sir Paul Williams, OBE, KStJ, DL.
Over the years Revd Kitto has progressed through most ranks of St John Ambulance’s uniformed section.
In 2017, he was appointed a Trustee of the Priory for Wales and serves as principal officer of the Priory and chair of the People’s Committee of the organisation.
As well as being invested by the Duke of Gloucester, as a Knight of Grace (KStJ) of the Most Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem in 2004, Desmond was also honoured as a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for voluntary service to the community in South Wales in 2008.
Revd Kitto, who will actually celebrate 60 years of service at St John Ambulance, next year said: “I was honoured to receive an award for nearly 60 years’ service at an organisation that means so much to me.
“The service medal of the Order is awarded to volunteers and other eligible persons who perform properly recorded qualifying service over a requisite period of years. It was first introduced in 1885 and is the only British medal currently in use that depicts the head of Queen Victoria.
“The new gilt ultra-long service medal replaces the silver service medal after 50 years of qualifying service. Her majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Sovereign Head of the Order of St John, was presented with a similar gilt medal and three bars, in March 2020.”
Image: In Your Area.