Page 19 - The Story of the RAMC

Chapter IV
“The Motto”
We have seen how the Crown, the Serpent and the Laurel combine to represent the soldier, the technician and the sportsman. The motto ‘In Arduis Fidelis’ sums up the character and ideals of the men who wear the badge.
The literal meaning is ‘In hardship faithful’ and it is commonly translated ‘Steadfast in adversity’. The RAMC Collect to be read in churches speaks of ‘loyalty in hard service’. Brigadier Price in his ‘Hymn to the Fallen of the RAMC’ wrote “Their proud tradition still maintaining, in hardship faithful to the last”. In his well-known poem ‘IF’ Rudyard Kipling expresses much the same idea “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you”, and one down-to-earth young soldier has tersely rendered it ‘HOT BUT NOT BOTHERED’!
Our motto, like the badge, is applicable to all ranks in times of peace as well as war for the need for a cool head and steady nerve is not confined to the battlefield. During his service the soldier has to meet with many moments of crisis and frustration in hospitals and barrack rooms as well as in the playing field or boxing ring, moments when the memory of the Corps Motto will stand him in good stead.
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