An Equal Burden forms 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 ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). These men, through their work as stretcher-bearers and orderlies, provided a range of labour, both physical and emotional, in aid of the sick and wounded. They were not professional medical caregivers, yet were called upon to provide medical care, however rudimentary; they served in uniform, under military discipline, yet were forbidden, as non-combatants, from carrying weapons. Their service as men in wartime was thus unique. Structured both chronologically and thematically, this study 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, locating their service within the context of that of doctors, female nurses, and combatant servicemen. Through close readings of official documents, personal papers, and cultural representations, both verbal and visual, it 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.

Contents

• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Epigraph
• Introduction
  • Notes
• Bandage Wallahs and St John’s Men: British military medicine before the First World War
  • Military Reform
  • Medical Reform
  • Voluntary Aid
  • Medico-Military Reform
  • Refining the Army Medical Services
  • Blurring the Boundaries
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
• Eye Tests and Stretcher Drill: The recruitment and training of the RAMC ranks
  • Recruitment
  • Training
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
• Carrying, Cleaning, Caring: Other Ranks’ roles along the line of evacuation
  • Medical Evacuation Along the Line of Communication
  • Regimental Aid Posts
  • Dressing Stations
  • Casualty Clearing Stations
  • Base and Home Hospitals
  • Transportation
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
• From No Man’s Land to Auxiliary Hospital: The development of medical evacuation, 1914–1918
  • No Man’s Land
  • The Trenches
  • The Motor Ambulance Corps
  • Casualty Clearing Stations
  • Auxiliary Hospitals
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
• From Slackers in Khaki to Knights of the Red Cross: Cultural representations of RAMC Other Ranks
  • ‘Slackers in Khaki’
  • Comrades in Service
  • Knights of the Red Cross
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
• Conclusion
  • Notes
• Bibliography

First Edition published in 2019

Impression: 1

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956839