“We come with passports instead of swords” unpacking the 1926 Mediterranean Pilgrimage of the Order of St John

This paper unpacks the 1926 ‘Pilgrimage’ of the Order of St John, parent organisation of the St John Ambulance Association and order of chivalry of the British crown. Rather than merely following the participants’ presentation of themselves as pilgrims, the excursion needs to be located in the context of twentieth-century tourism, imperial presence in the Mediterranean, and British investment in crusader medievalism. The tour revealed the ways in which the Order was entwined with structures of British imperial power whilst simultaneously attempting to bridge fractures in the Order’s relationship with the medieval past.

Part of the Medievalism and Imperial Modernity research strand, and co-organized with the Department of History and the York Asia Research Network.