Page 15 - The Story of the RAMC

Royal Marines, Harville and Mason, went out a second and a third time. On the last journey he was shot through the head, 50 yards from his headquarters.
In telling of his Victoria Cross in the House of Commons the Secretary of State said “I do not remember of reading of anything more heroic”.
Figures are often dull and misleading but surely few can read the records of the RAMC in three major wars without a feeling of pride. It has dealt with 14 million casualties, it has been awarded 14 Victoria Crosses (Two with bars), 1 George Cross, 603 Distinguished Service Orders, 1,806 Military Crosses, 464 Distinguished Conduct Medals and 2,375 Military Medals. The price, however, has not been a small one, for our rolls of honour contain the names of 1,180 officers and 8,165 other ranks.
Perhaps the time is not yet ripe to give full assessment of the work of the Corps during conflicts which have broken out during the uneasy years of the “cold war”, suffice to say that, in Korea, Suez, Cyprus and Malaya the laurels won by the later generation of the Corps today have fully maintained the high tradition of the past.
Laurels won in peace :-
History has shown that the laurels the Corps has won in peace do not fall short of those it gained in war. In addition to the almost complete extermination of typhoid fever in the Army, the Corps has been instrumental in saving millions of lives by its contributions to the study of Malta Fever (the bacillus of which bears the name of its discoverer Surgeon General Sir David Bruce), sleeping sickness, malaria and many other diseases.
Immense changes have taken place since the early days of scientific discovery. Sir Isaac Newton, for example, was able to conceive his theory of gravitation by merely sitting in an orchard and watching an apple fall to the ground, today when we are learning to defy gravitation and send spacemen into orbit, it involves a host of scientists and technicians and apparatus costing millions of pounds. By the same token in Wellington’s day the surgeon working in the open with no anaesthetic or trained assistance, would lop off an arm or a leg in a matter of seconds. The great French surgeon, Baron Larrey, is said to have done 200 amputations in one day! Today the surgeon has to place reliance on a team of highly trained, devoted helpers.
So it is that with the passing of years the standard of training in the Corps has advanced hand in hand with the progress of medical science and doctors in the Army have come to depend more and more on their technicians in the operating theatre, the X-Ray rooms, the laboratories and the wards, and the high standard of our Corps trade qualifications has set the example for various voluntary and civil organisations throughout the country.
11