Royal Army Medical Corps
The
Royal Army Medical Corps (
RAMC) is a specialist
corps in the
British Army which provides
medical services to all
British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace. Together with the
Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the
Royal Army Dental Corps and
Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, the RAMC forms the British Army's essential
Army Medical Services.
The RAMC does not carry a
Regimental Colour or
Queen's Colour, although it has a Regimental Flag. Nor does it have
battle honours, as elements of the corps have been present in almost every single war the army has fought. Because it is not a fighting arm, under the
Geneva Convention, members of the RAMC may only use their weapons for self-defence. For this reason, there are two traditions that the RAMC perform when on parade:
*Officers do not draw their swords - instead they hold their scabbard with their left hand while saluting with their right.
*
Other Ranks do not fix
bayonets.
The RAMC, like every other British regiment, has its own distinctive unit insignia.
*Dark-blue
beret *
Cap badge - the badge depicts the
Rod of Asclepius surmounted by a crown, enclosed within a laurel wreath. The regimental motto
In Arduis Fidelis, translated as "Steadfast in Adversity" or "In Hardship, Faithful", in a scroll beneath. The cap badge is worn 1 inch above the left eye on the beret. The cap badge must also be backed by an oval patch of 'dull cherry-red' colored cloth, sewn directly to the beret.
*Silver regimental collar pins (collar dogs), a miniature of the cap badge. In peacetime they are worn with the heads of the snakes looking towards each other, in wartime they are reversed.
*
Stable belt - comprised of equal horizontal bands of (from top to bottom) crimson, royal blue, and gold, reflecting the regimental flag
*Silver belt buckle with engraved regimental badge
Medical services in the
British military go as far back as the formation of the
Standing Regular Army after the
Restoration of
Charles II in
1660. This was the first time a career was provided for a Medical Officer (MO), known as the Regimental Surgeon, both in peacetime and in war. The Army was formed entirely on a regimental basis, and a MO with a
Warrant Officer as his Assistant Surgeon was appointed to each regiment, which also provided a hospital. The MO was also for the first time concerned in the continuing health of his troops, and not limited to just
battlefield medicine. This regimental basis of appointment for MOs continued until it was abolished in 1873.
In
1898,
officers and
soldiers providing medical services were incorporated into one body known by its present name, the Royal Army Medical Corps.
The RAMC began to develop during the Boer War, but it was during the
First World War that it reached its apogee both in size and experience. During Britain's colonial days the RAMC had set up clinics and hospitals in countries where British troops could be found.
In modern times it has once again contracted and its main bases, the Queen Alexandra Hospital Millbank, and the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, are now closed.
The military medical services are now very much tri-service, with the hospital facilities of Army, Air force and Navy combined. The main hospital facility is now the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham, a joint military-NHS centre. The former Royal Naval Hospital Haslar in Gosport, near Portsmouth, is now the tri-service Royal Hospital Haslar. Derriford NHS hospital in Plymouth, and North Allerton NHS hospital in Yorkshire, and Frimley Park Hospital near London have military wards.
*
F.M. HRH Arthur William Patrick Albert, 1st Duke of Connaught & Strathearn,KG, KT, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, GBE, VD, TD (1919â€"1942)
*
HM Queen Mary (1942â€"1953)
*
HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1953â€"2002)
*
HRH The Duke of GloucesterKG, GCVO (2003â€"present)
* Medical Staff Corps (1855â€"1857) (other ranks only)
* Army Hospital Corps (1857â€"1884) (other ranks only)
* Army Medical Department (1873â€"1898) (officers only)
* Medical Staff Corps (1884â€"1898) (other ranks only)
* Royal Army Medical Corps (1898â€"present)
Since the
Victoria Cross was instituted in 1856 there have been 29 Victoria Crosses and two bars awarded to army medical personnel. A bar, indicating a subsequent award of a second Victoria Cross, has only been awarded on three separate occasions. Twenty-three of these Victoria Crosses are on display in the
Army Medical Services Museum. The corps also has one recipient of both the Victoria Cross and the
Iron Cross.
| Surname | First Name/s! Awarded while serving with |
|---|
| ACKROYD | Harold | Royal Army Medical Corps att'd The Royal Berkshire Regiment |
| ALLEN | William Barnsley | Royal Army Medical Corps att'd Royal Field Artillery |
| BABTIE | William | Royal Army Medical Corps |
| BRADSHAW | William | 90th Regiment (The Cameronians) |
| CHAVASSE | Noel Godfrey | Royal Army Medical Corps att'd The King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Bar: same |
| CREAN | Thomas Joseph | 1st Imperial Light Horse (Natal) |
| DOUGLAS | Henry Edward Manning | Royal Army Medical Corps |
| FARMER | Joseph John | Army Hospital Corps |
| FOX-RUSSELL | John | Royal Army Medical Corpsatt'd The Royal Welch Fusiliers |
| GREEN | John Leslie | Royal Army Medical Corps att'd The Sherwood Foresters |
| HALE | Thomas Egerton | 7th Regiment (The Royal Fusiliers) |
| HARDEN | Henry Eric | Royal Army Medical Corpsatt'd 45 Royal Marine Commando |
| HARTLEY | Edmund Barron | Cape Mounted Riflemen, SA Forces |
| HOME | Anthony Dickson | 90th Perthshire Light Infantry |
| INKSON | Edgar Thomas | Royal Army Medical Corpsatt'd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers |
| JEE | Joseph | 78th Regiment (The Seaforth Highlanders) |
| LE QUESNE | Ferdinand Simeon | Medical Staff Corps |
| LLOYD | Owen Edward Pennefather | Army Medical Department |
| MALING | George Allen | Royal Army Medical Corpsatt'd The Rifle Brigade |
| MANLEY | William George Nicholas | Royal Regiment of Artillery
Awarded Iron Cross 1870 |
| MARTIN-LEAKE | Arthur | VC : South African ConstabularyBar : Royal Army Medical Corps |
| MOUAT | James | 6th Dragoons (Inniskilling) |
| NICKERSON | William Henry Snyder | Royal Army Medical Corps |
| RANKEN | Harry Sherwood | Royal Army Medical Corpsatt'd King's Royal Rifle Corps |
| REYNOLDS | James Henry | Army Medical Department |
| SINTON | John Alexander | Indian Medical Service |
| SYLVESTER | William Henry Thomas | 23rd Regiment (The Royal Welch Fusiliers) |
RAMC Officer Careers:
*
Doctor (Medical Officer)*
Pharmacist*
Physiotherapist*Medical Support Officer
RAMC Soldier Trades:
*
Clinical Physiologist*
Combat Medical Technician*
Operating Department Practitioner*
Pharmacy Technician*
Environmental Health Technician*
Laboratory Technician*
Radiographer*
Structure of the British Army: The Services*
Combat medic* Blair, J.S.G.
Centenary History of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1898â€"1998. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1998.
* Brereton, F.S.
The Great War and the RAMC. London: Constable, 1919.
* Lovegrove, P.
Not Least in the Crusade. A Short History of the RAMC. Gale and Polden, 1955.
*
Royal Army Medical Corps website*
Army Medical Services Museum Webpage
