An Equal Burden is the first scholarly study of the Army Medical Services in the First World War to focus on the roles and experiences of the men of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Though they were not professional medical caregivers, they were called upon to provide urgent medical care and, as non-combatants, were forbidden from carrying weapons. Their role in the war effort was quite unique and warranting of further study. Structured both chronologically and thematically, An Equal Burden examines the work that RAMC rankers undertook and its importance to the running of the chain of medical evacuation. It additionally explores the gendered status of these men within the medical, military, and cultural hierarchies of a society engaged in total war. Through close readings of official documents, personal papers, and cultural representations, Meyer argues that the ranks of the RAMC formed a space in which non-commissioned servicemen, through their many roles, defined and redefined medical caregiving as men's work in wartime.

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) supported the British Army throughout the First World War, treating sick and wounded military personnel. The military nursing services and voluntary medical personnel provided vital support to RAMC medical units and hospitals, ensuring the effective treatment of casualties. The size of the armies, the intensity of the combat, the power of modern weaponry and the global nature of conflict meant the number of casualties proved challenging for the medical services of all combatants, including the RAMC. A range of previously unpublished photographs, in thematic chapters considering aspects such as service in the United Kingdom, global warfare and commemoration, illustrate experiences of RAMC and medical personnel during the First World War. The book contributes to wider understanding of the RAMC and medical services in the First World War, and will be of relevance to readers with an interest in medical, social and photographic history.

Doctors played a bigger role in the First World War than in any other previous conflict. This reflected not only the War's unprecedented scale but a growing recognition of the need for proper medical cover. The RAMC had to be expanded to meet the needs of Britain's citizen army. As a result by 1918 some 13,000 doctors were on active service over half the nation's doctors.Strangely, historians have largely neglected the work of doctors during the War. Doctors in the Great War brings to light the thoughts and motivations of doctors who served in 1914-1918, by drawing on a wealth of personal experience documentation, as well as official military sources and the medical press. The author examines the impact of the War upon the medical profession and the Army. He looks at the contribution of medical students, and the extent to which new professional opportunities became available to women doctors.An insight into the breadth of responsibilities undertaken by Medical Officers is given through analysis of the work of various medical units on the Western Front, demonstrating the important role played by doctors in the maintenance of the Army's physical and mental well-being. The differences between civilian and military medicine are discussed with a consideration of the arrangements for the training of doctors, and an assessment of the difficulties faced by doctors in adapting to military priorities and dealing with new challenges such as gas poisoning, infected wounds and shell shock.Doctors in the Great War will undoubtedly appeal to general readers, students and specialists in the history of war and society, as well as to those with an interest in the medical profession.As featured in the Derby Telegraph, Dover Express and Kent & Sussex Courier

An account of the World War II heroics of the corps that “revolutionized medical care for British troops . . . Most Highly Recommended” (Firetrench). On 28 September 1945, Field Marshal Montgomery expressed his “admiration and high regard to a corps whose contribution to victory has been beyond all calculation.” The Royal Army Medical Corps was active during all engagements in the Second World War. From the defeat in Norway in 1940 to the hell of Dunkirk and the fall of France, from the chaos of the retreat through Greece and Crete to the war’s turning point in the vast deserts of North Africa, from the intensity of D-Day and the Normandy campaign to the reverses at Arnhem and the eventual liberation of the German death camps and Far East prison camps, RAMC personnel were frequently at the heart of the action, risking their lives to provide medical support to a mobile army in a highly mechanized war. For those taken prisoner by the enemy, maintaining the physical and psychological well-being of their fellow captives became an urgent necessity, while for a small number of exceptionally brave and hardy souls, attachment to commando units saw them provide medical support for some of the most daring raids of the war. Nearly 3,000 RAMC doctors and orderlies were killed during the war as a result of enemy action or exposure to dangerous tropical diseases. Using previously unpublished archival material and personal family papers, this book sheds fresh light on the experience of the regulars, volunteers and conscripts who gave expression to the motto of the RAMC: Faithful in Adversity.

“I am on night duty ... on what is supposed to be the ‘hopeless ward’ so you can imagine, or try to, just what I am doing. I know you cannot really have the faintest idea ...” In Sister Soldiers of the Great War, award-winning author Cynthia Toman recovers the long-lost history of Canada’s first women soldiers – nursing sisters who enlisted as officers with the Canadian Army Medical Corps. These experienced professional nurses left their friends, families, and jobs to enlist in the army. Granted relative rank and equal pay to men, they had a mandate to salvage as many sick and wounded men as possible for return to the front lines. Nothing prepared them for poor living conditions, the scale of casualties, or the type of wounds they encountered, but their letters and diaries reveal that they were determined to soldier on under all circumstances while still “living as well as possible.”

This book focuses on the trench diseases—trench fever, trench nephritis and trench foot—and examines how doctors responded to them in the context of the Great War. It details the problems that they faced in tackling these conditions, “new” to military warfare. After an introduction to the subject, the second chapter sketches the socio-economic and scientific context within which the response was mounted. The development of bacteriology, sanitation and medical research in the British Army is examined, as is the structure and role of the wartime RAMC, the main body involved in the response to the trench diseases. Divisions between medical practitioners concerning the aetiology of epidemic disease are also described. The third and fourth chapters present a detailed inquiry into how the diseases were defined, and how these definitions were used to counteract them. The effectiveness of the medical response is evaluated in the conclusion, which also examines the impact that the response to the trench diseases had on military-medical progress and medical specialisation. An analysis of the medical response to the trench diseases reveals a conflict between clinicians holding views on disease causation along a spectrum—contagionists, contingent-contagionists and con-figurationists. Faced with their inability to treat the trench diseases effectively, the book argues that the extremely diverse initial interpretation of the trench diseases was replaced by a majority view that all three were a product of the trenches. This enabled an effective response to be mounted, using public health methods, reinforced by discipline, close surveillance, administrative organisation, and cooperation between military and medical branches, as well as within the Army Medical Service.

This book contains over 600 rare and never before published photographs of the British Soldier in World War I. The quality images selected were photographed in peace and wartime, in the studio and the field, and show in detail the service dress uniform, equipment and weapons in use by the British Army between 1900-1918. The chapters contain photographic postcards of: Infantry officers and other ranks, Dominion Troops, Infantry Weapons, Machine Gun and Tank Corps, Royal Artillery, Wheels and Transport, Army Service Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Engineers, Royal Flying Corps and Battle Insignia. Also included is a full color section of Army, Corps and Divisional signs. Each photograph caption has been carefully and thoroughly researched affording the reader information not to be found in any other single source. The introduction discusses early war photography and goes into further detail on the service dress and equipment to make this a must book for the military historian, collector, researcher, modeller and general enthusiast.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. The First World War was the first ‘total war’. Its industrial weaponry damaged millions of men and drove whole armies underground into dangerously unhealthy trenches. Many were killed. Many more suffered terrible, life-threatening injuries: wound infections such as gas gangrene and tetanus, exposure to extremes of temperature, emotional trauma and systemic disease. In an effort to alleviate this suffering, tens of thousands of women volunteered to serve as nurses. Of these, some were experienced professionals, while others had undergone only minimal training. But regardless of their preparation, they would all gain a unique understanding of the conditions of industrial warfare. Until recently their contributions, both to the saving of lives and to our understanding of warfare, have remained largely hidden from view. By combining biographical research with textual analysis, Nurse writers of the great war opens a window onto their insights into the nature of nursing and the impact of warfare.