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.

Insignia

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

History

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.

Colonels-in-chief

F.M. HRH Arthur William Patrick Albert, 1st Duke of Connaught & Strathearn,KG, KT, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, GBE, VD, TD (1919–1942)
HM Queen Mary (1942–1953)
HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1953–2002)
HRH The Duke of GloucesterKG, GCVO (2003–present)

Order of Precedence

Successive changes in title

Medical Staff Corps (1855–1857) (other ranks only)
Army Hospital Corps (1857–1884) (other ranks only)
Army Medical Department (1873–1898) (officers only)
Medical Staff Corps (1884–1898) (other ranks only)
Royal Army Medical Corps (1898–present)

Gallantry Awards

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.

att'd The Royal Welch Fusiliers att'd 45 Royal Marine Commando att'd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers att'd The Rifle Brigade Bar : Royal Army Medical Corps att'd King's Royal Rifle Corps

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 Corps
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 Corps
HARTLEY	Edmund Barron	Cape Mounted Riflemen, SA Forces
HOME	Anthony Dickson	90th Perthshire Light Infantry
INKSON	Edgar Thomas	Royal Army Medical Corps
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 Corps
MANLEY	William George Nicholas	Royal Regiment of Artillery Awarded Iron Cross 1870
MARTIN-LEAKE	Arthur	VC : South African Constabulary
MOUAT	James	6th Dragoons (Inniskilling)
NICKERSON	William Henry Snyder	Royal Army Medical Corps
RANKEN	Harry Sherwood	Royal Army Medical Corps
REYNOLDS	James Henry	Army Medical Department
SINTON	John Alexander	Indian Medical Service
SYLVESTER	William Henry Thomas	23rd Regiment (The Royal Welch Fusiliers)

Trades/Careers In The 21st Century

RAMC Officer Careers:

RAMC Soldier Trades:

References

Blair, J.S.G. Centenary History of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1898–1998. 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.

External links

Military of the United Kingdom | Military medicine | British administrative corps

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