alliance of st john

http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/about-us/our-museum.aspx
This museum explores the legacy of the Order of St John (or the Hospitallers), a religious order founded in Jerusalem by 1099. The members were devoted to nursing and fighting, first as defenders of the land captured in the Holy Lands by the Crusades and later as sovereign rulers of a series of island states in the Mediterranean - including Malta.
st johns gate (above)

The first master of the original Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem was Brother Gerard (whose origins remain a mystery). Although the original traditions may go further back, we believe that in about 1080, with the help of certain merchants and pilgrims, the Benedictine abbey of St Mary in Jerusalem, in which Gerard was probably a monk, established a hospice close to the Holy Sepulchre compound. Its aim was to tend to pilgrims visiting the city and the holy places nearby, as well as the poor and sick. In 1099, the First Crusade entered Jerusalem - and the fame of Blessed Gerard and his hospital soon spread. The hospital was independently endowed; and the number of brothers (and sisters) grew. Before long, the Brotherhood of Hospitallers, dedicated to St John the Baptist, assumed a military as well as a nursing character. The Knights, as well as tending to our lords the sick and the poor, served as armed guards for the Hospital and escorts for visiting pilgrims, in addition to fighting in support of the Crusader kings and princes.
http://www.allianceofstjohn.org/