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14th - ‘The British Commonwealth Fire Company’

It was the 1950s when John Alfred Stewart Jackson, founder of The Grange School, and his great friend Captain Graham Balfour, both driven by their British spirit, had the idea of founding a Fire Company for the British community residing in Santiago, which would also include alumni of the school.


Thus, on September 29, 1958, more than 40 men gathered at the First Company's Headquarters, our sponsor company, to be part of this new challenge. Jackson was the only one missing, as he had passed away a few months earlier and couldn't witness the creation of his Fire Company.


On that day, the founding charter of the Company was signed, and it would be called ‘The British Commonwealth Fire Company’, with Gonzalo Figueroa Yáñez, an Old Boy and former student, as the instructor. However, it was later when the Santiago Fire Department approved them that they were distinguished with the number 14.


On July 8, 1959, under the watchful eyes of the Institution's Board of Directors, the now 'Fourteenth Company J.A.S. Jackson, The British Commonwealth Fire Company' elected its first official officers: Douglas Mackenzie as Director and Harold Bain as Captain, who laid the foundation for what the Fourteenth Company is today.


In 1968, the Company received a visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who was honoured by the Company at the Prince of Wales Country Club. Over the following years, Princess Anne, Prince Charles, and Prince Edward also visited the Company.


Photo source https://14.cl/

More information about the 14th here

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