FIRST TO CARE: 125 YEARS OF THE ORDER OF ST JOHN IN NEW ZEALAND, 1885-2010 brings to life the history of one of our most ubiquitous and vital charitable organisations. The heavily illustrated book provides a vivid account of public-spiritedness, enterprise and innovation by people involved in St John over the past 125 years, peppered with occasional disputes and setbacks along the way. St John invented and popularised 'first aid' as we know it. It provided medical assistance from the sidelines of our sports fields from as early as 1891 and it played a leading role in disaster relief from its formative days. From humble beginnings it established a nationwide ambulance service that today is the envy of the St John fraternity worldwide.

This is the life of a pioneering woman doctor who, graduating in 1937, had by the time of her death in 1974 reached the highest honours of her profession and become a leading public figure. A specialist allergist and paediatrician, Alice Bush was at the vanguard of debates about the provision of health services, attitudes to sexuality, reproductive rights and health education. At the same time she was also a daughter, wife and mother sharing contemporary views about these roles and gradually working out, without support of a prevailing feminist ideology, ways to sustain both aspects of her life. Her story is one of courage, flexibility, imagination and compassion whihc offers much interest to people from different perspectives.

Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, this book explores how far imperial culture penetrated antipodean city institutions. It argues that far from imperial saturation, the city 'Down Under' was remarkably untouched by the Empire.

While a plethora of studies have discussed why so many men decided to volunteer for the army during the Great War, the experiences of those who were called up under conscription have received relatively little scrutiny. Even when the implementation of the respective Military Service Acts has been investigated, scholars have usually focused on only the distinct minority of those eligible who expressed conscientious objections. It is rare to see equal significance placed on the fact that substantial numbers of men appealed, or were appealed for, on the grounds that their domestic, business, or occupational circumstances meant they should not be expected to serve. David Littlewood analyses the processes undergone by these men, and the workings of the bodies charged with assessing their cases, through a sustained transnational comparison of the British and New Zealand contexts.