Medical Staff - QVC Officers Gilt Button - British Army - 1855-1898

Medical Staff

Queen Victoria Crown

Officers Gilt Button

1855-1898

Hallmark:  "FIRMIN & SONS LON...." (LONDON obscured)

*** Price per Button - Several Available per Listing ***

NOTE:  We Combine S&H - Auction in Canadian $$$ - U.S. Buyers, please check the U.S. Postal rate.

DESCRIPTION

Attractive, British Army Medical Officers gilt button from the "Medical Staff", worn between 1855 and 1898.   Fixed shank with makers mark a little difficult to read, the button measuring approximately 1.6 cms in diameter.   Probably a cuff button.

HISTORY

Since the Victoria Cross was instituted in 1856 there have been 29 Victoria Crosses and TWO bars, (indicates a second award to the same recipient), awarded to British Army medical personnel.  This speaks to the bravery of Army Medics and Officers who risked their own lives attempting to save others wounded and still in danger.

Early History:  The British Army trace formal medical care to 1660 when the Regular Army was formed.  Each infantry and cavalry regiment had a Regimental Surgeon and assistant. Between 1702-1714, the Duke of Marlborough introduced ‘Marching’ or ‘Flying Hospitals’ to accompany his armies, but it was not until the Peninsular War, 1808-1814 that formal army medical services were organised.

After the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, the Army Medical Department had a major reorganisation with well-planned systems of casualty evacuation/registration, field hospitals and convalescent depots, that maintained thousands of trained men in the field.

When the Crimean War began in 1854, medical and logistical support was organised by civilian departments, which often did not consult with the army, resulting in disastrous consequences.  Medical organisation was largely based on a peacetime arrangement of regimental hospitals.  Medical officers were commissioned, wore regimental uniforms but held no military rank and were entirely under the command of the Regiment's Colonel.  With no trained staff, he only had just a few men detailed from the Regiment who had no medical knowledge or training.  The scandal of inadequate medical care reached Britain, creating national outrage as the public read about the suffering of soldiers, dying of disease in the Crimea.

The Director General urged the need for a medical corps and the War Office collected 300 old army pensioners to form an ambulance corps.  Shortly before departing to the Crimea, it was realised they could hardly carry themselves let alone care for the sick and wounded.  This was proven as many of them died of cholera.  Finally, in 1855 the Army Medical Staff, (consisting of doctors and physicians) and the separate Medical Staff Corps was formed, (composed of  "Men able to read and write, of regular steady habits and good temper and of a kindly disposition").

In 1857 the Medical Staff Corps was reorganised into the Army Hospital Corps, reverting to its former name in 1884.   The Medical Staff (Officers), continued to serve throught the British Empire, providing medical services to the Army in all campaigns.

By 1898 there were two distinct organisations within the Army Medical Services, the Medical Staff Corps and the Medical Staff (the officers).  These two separate organisations reorganised as the Royal Army Medical Corps, by Royal Warrant on 23rd June 1898. 

An excellent old Victorian era button for any British or Commonwealth collection.

ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS

With the formation of the RAMC medical officers had the same rank structure as the rest of the Army with responsibility for medical care.  Three months later RAMC personnel were serving in the Sudan and one year after its formation the RAMC was fully committed in the Boer War.

The Boer War highlighted the importance of medical care for the Army, treating 22,000 wounded and 74,000 for dysentery and typhoid.  The advice of new hygiene officers was ignored with fatal consequences; water purification was defective, sanitation deplorable and rations inadequate.  However, the British were working on an anti-typhoid vaccine and as a result typhoid fever, that killed 8,000 soldiers in the Boer War, was reduced to negligible proportions during the two world wars.

Lessons learned in the Boer War improved RAMC efficiency in the build-up to WW1.  This planning ensured reorganisation of medical services as an essential part of the British Army.

In 1914, most transport was horse-drawn and organisation for casualty evacuation was based on a "chain of evacuation" with sick and wounded moved back by a series of posts; the Regimental Aid Post, the Collecting Post, the Advanced and Main Dressing Station, the Casualty Clearing Station and finally the General Hospital either in France or England by hospital ship.  Early in the war, Casualty Clearing Stations expanded into forward areas, at times taking up to 1,000 patients.

The RAMC expanded rapidly in WW1, from 9,000 other ranks in 1914 to 154,000 other ranks and 13,00 officers by 1918.  They saw active service in France, Belgium, Macedonia, Italy, Palestine, South Russia and Mesopotamia.

By WW2, technology gave the RAMC access to mechanised land and air transport with specialists and operating teams getting to the front-line faster.  Major medical developments were pioneered by the Army, such as the use of penicillin in the North African campaign and the crucial development of blood transfusion.

The end of WW2 saw the start of the Cold War.  British troops were needed worldwide and between 1946-1969, served on active service in Palestine, Korea, Malaya, East Africa, Borneo, Cyprus and Aden, as well as the Suez operation of 1956 and numerous Unitied Nations missions.

The British Army were committed in Northern Ireland from 1969-2007, the Falklands War of 1982, the Gulf War 1990-1991, Bosnia and Yugoslavia and more recently Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as numerous other peacekeeping and humanitarian operations across the globe including the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

PAYMENT

Please make payment within 3 days of purchase  -  Payment by PayPal

*** PLEASE  CHECK WITH US  FOR  COMBINED RATES  WHEN BUYING  MULTIPLE ITEMS ***

PLEASE NOTE:     If you want registered post or tracking, please advise before paying as there is an extra cost for this service.  Although items have extremely rarely gone missing, we will not accept responsibility for missing items sent by the regular postal services outlined in the minimum S&H costs. 

RETURNS

If the goods are not 100% as described please contact us and return within 10 days of the buyer receiving the items), in secure packaging and in the same condition as when purchased, we will refund the purchase price, or replace with a substitute item of similar cost, less any postage costs.  You will be responsible for return postage and registered postage is suggested.

 THANK YOU FOR LOOKING