Royal Army Medical Corps
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Royal Army Medical Corps | |
|---|---|
 Cap badge of the Royal Army Medical Corps |
|
| Active | 1898 - present day |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Nickname | The Linseed Lancers; Handbags (derogatory) |
| Motto | In Arduis Fidelis |
| March | Quick: Here's a Health unto His Majesty (arr. J.A. Thornburrow) Slow: Her bright smile haunts me still (J Campbell) |
| Anniversaries | Corps Day (23 June) |
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 Conventions, 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.
Unlike medical officers in some other countries, medical officers in the RAMC (and the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force) do not use the "Dr" prefix, in parentheses or otherwise, but only their rank, although they may be addressed informally as "Doctor".
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[edit] Insignia
The RAMC, like every other British regiment, has its own distinctive unit insignia.
- Dark blue beret, the default Army colour worn by units without distinctive coloured berets
- The exception being soldiers and officers of 225 Scottish General Support Medical Regiment (previously Field Ambulance), who wear the traditional Scottish 'Tam O' Shanter' headdress with Aesclepius badge on tartan backing.
- Cap badge depicting the Rod of Asclepius, surmounted by a crown, enclosed within a laurel wreath, with the regimental motto In Arduis Fidelis, translated as "Faithful in Adversity" in a scroll beneath. The cap badge is worn 1 inch above the left eye on the beret. The cap badge of the other ranks must also be backed by an oval patch of dull cherry-red coloured cloth sewn directly to the beret. Officers do not use the backing, but have a sewn-on cloth cap badge instead.
- 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 comprising equal horizontal bands of (from top to bottom) dull cherry, royal blue, and gold, reflecting the old uniform worn in the 1900s (dull cherry and royal blue), the gold depicting the royal in the title.
- Silver belt buckle with engraved regimental badge
[edit] 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, have 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, although this hospital is to close in March 2007. The majority of injured service personnel will then be treated in Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, despite recent press coverage of poor conditions there.[1] Derriford NHS hospital in Plymouth, North Allerton NHS hospital in Yorkshire, and Frimley Park Hospital (south of London) also have military wards.
[edit] Colonels-in-chief
- FM HRH Arthur William Patrick Albert, 1st Duke of Connaught & Strathearn,KG, KT, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, GBE, VD, TD (1919–1942)
- HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1942–2002)
- HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG, GCVO (2003–present)
[edit] Order of Precedence
| Preceded by: Royal Logistic Corps |
Order of Precedence | Succeeded by: Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers |
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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 ever been awarded three times, two of them to medical officers. 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. One officer was awarded the George Cross in the Second World War. A young female member of the corps, Michelle Norris, became the first woman to be awarded the Military Cross following her actions in Iraq on June 11, 2006.[2]
| 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
att'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 Corps
att'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 Corps
att'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 Corps
att'd The Rifle Brigade |
| MANLEY | William George Nicholas | Royal Regiment of Artillery Awarded Iron Cross 1870 |
| MARTIN-LEAKE | Arthur | VC : South African Constabulary
Bar : Royal Army Medical Corps |
| MOUAT | James | 6th Dragoons (Inniskilling) |
| NICKERSON | William Henry Snyder | Royal Army Medical Corps |
| RANKEN | Harry Sherwood | Royal Army Medical Corps
att'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) |
[edit] Trades/Careers In The 21st century
RAMC Officer Careers:
RAMC Soldier Trades:
- Clinical Physiologist
- Combat Medical Technician
- Operating Department Practitioner
- Pharmacy Technician
- Environmental Health Technician
- Laboratory Technician
- Radiographer
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Muir, Hugh. "Storm over injured troops' care fails to save military hospital", The Guardian, Guardian Media Group, 2007-03-12, p. 8. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved on 2007-03-23.
- ^ Glendinning, Lee. "Historic award for female private", The Guardian, Guardian Media Group, 2007-03-22, p. 8. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
- 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.
