St John Eye Hospital Group

The St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group is a charitable foundation which operates an ophthalmic hospital in Jerusalem and satellite eye care clinics in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is a wholly owned corporate subsidiary of the Venerable Order of St John. The Hospital Group is based in Jerusalem and is the main provider of eye care in the Palestinian territories. Patients receive care regardless of ethnicity, religion or ability to pay.

The original St John Ophthalmic Hospital opened by The Order of St John in 1882 on the Bethlehem Road just south of the old city of Jerusalem. The decision to have this charitable enterprise be an eye hospital was made because eye disease was then, as it is now, widespread in the area and far-reaching in its consequences. Queen Victoria granted the hospital a Royal Charter.Sir Edmund Lechmere, 3rd Baronet was one of the key figures in the establishment of the hospital. Lechmere and his wife were among the founders of Venerable Order of St John and had travelled several times to Jerusalem where they witnessed the need of its residents for eye care.

During the First World War, the hospital was closed and its building was taken over by the Turkish Army, who used it to store ammunition. During the Battle of Jerusalem in 1917, the building was damaged. Following the establish of the British Mandate for Palestine, the architect Clifford Holliday was hired to renovate the building. Holliday also designed a new wing and the nearby St Andrew's Church that were both opened in 1930. The new wing was situated across the street, on the opposite side of Hebron Road.

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