Page 16 - The Story of the RAMC

One example must suffice. Sir Alexander Fleming, then a young RAMC officer was working in the pathological laboratory in the general hospital at Boulogne in 1915. He was so impressed with the character and efficiency of his RAMC laboratory assistant that, at the end of the war, he took him with him to his laboratory at St. Mary’s Hospital where he made his epoch-making discovery of penicillin.
Laurels won on the playing fields:-
We have seen how the wreath of laurel stands for meritorious service in war and also in the arts of peace, but it has a still wider application. At the original Olympic games which were held in the shade of Mount Olympus in Greece from 776 B.C. to A.D. 394 the champions did not receive a gold, silver or bronze medal, but were awarded merely a wreath of laurel. It is the same emblem which can be seen today surrounding the Union Jack on Captain Roger Bannister’s running vest, which hangs in our Museum.
So it is that the laurels on our badge can be said to represent a third quality to be looked for in the young RAMC soldier today – the good soldier, the good technician and the good sportsman.
It is remarkable how often these qualities have been combined in the same person. Captain Chavasse, a brilliant young surgeon and a double VC played rugby for his college at Oxford, got his blue in the inter-university sports and finally represented his country in the Olympic Games. Colonel Martin-Leake, a Fellow of the College of Surgeons and another double VC was a great hiker and a mighty hunter of big game, many of whose trophies can be seen in the Museum.
In a small booklet of this kind it is impossible to do full justice to the sporting record of the Corps, suffice to say that the Depot team won the Army Football cup in 1920, 1921 and 1949 and the Rugby cup in 1947 and 1955. There have been many other triumphs on the cricket field, the running track and the boxing ring while three representatives of the Corps have reached the King and Queen’s Hundred on the Bisley ranges.
Our most outstanding athlete has been Lieutenant Colonel H M Prince who played on the Corps side while still on boy service at Netley, and later became Secretary of the Army Football Association. He captained our victorious teams in 1920 and 1921 and played five times for England, captaining the team against France while still a serving Staff Sergeant. There can be very few, who like him have represented their Corps in cricket, rugby, soccer, tennis, athletics and cross-country running.
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