MEDICAL QUARTERMASTER- WHAT IS IT?

[Guest]

 Could some kind-hearted  colleague save me guessing and tell me what exactly a Medical Quartermaster did?   I have a local casualty, Lieutenant Ernest Glenny, RAMC-qualified at Barts 1917, commissioned RAMC August 1917 and shipped out to 3 British General Hospital at Basra in March 1918 (died of illness,9th October 1918).  He seems to have been qualified in surgery. Of course, one has an image of any Quartermaster being a senior time-served NCO noted for having a tubby girth and an obstructive and "by the book" mindset. Obviously, this could not apply to Glenny- as being both young and an officer.

[MaureenE]

1910 article  "The Practical Duties of a Quartermaster, Royal Army Medical Corps, in a General Hospital, and Inferentially in any other Field Medical Unit" about the situation in South Africa

from Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps

https://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/jramc/14/3/285.full.pdf

 

Cheers

Maureen

[Guest]

Thanks Maureene-as ever. Very helpful, twice over-It answers the question and also lets me know that BMJ is digitised (well, sort of) and can be accessed by idiots such as Your Humble

 

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

He seems to have been qualified in surgery.

By that do you mean he was MRCS, LRCP ?

Those degrees were pretty standard London Hospital degrees back then, called 'Conjoint'.

MRCS doesn't really mean someone  is specifically surgically trained, it was just the standard part of the undergraduate course, as it is nowadays, where graduates usually get MB., BCh (Or ChB, or BS...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjoint

 

(I can't imagine he was already an FRCS (a proper surgeon) seeing as he only qualified the year before he died.)

[Guest]

DB- Thanks for the update- I was being a little bit shorthand in what I put, the main query being the one as the header.  I am well aware that the 2 degrees go together-a medical equivalent of Morrisons and BOGOFF-  Buy One Get One Free. My man Glenny  was the also the winner of the Willett Medal in his year, given for the best marks in the Brackenbury Examination in Surgery. In my write-up, I only suggest he may have been specialising  in surgery- given also the sheer quantity of soldiers treated at Barts during the war. The hospital journal shows, with some of its articles and case reports, that Barts did a lot of surgical work on soldiers during the war- I suspect the more specialist stuff  done after the front-line or base hospital treatments in France.

[MaureenE]

... and also lets me know that BMJ is digitised (well, sort of) and can be accessed by idiots such as Your Humble

 

The article above was not from   what is usually meant by  BMJ [British Medical Journal]  but from

Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps. An Archive from 1903. The "Corps News" may not be not indexed, but appears as a separate section at the back of each monthly edition. Note: the content of the Archive is searchable. Pdf files to access, by article. From 2020 the title changed to BMJ Military Health.

 

Cheers

Maureen

[Guest]

 Thank you Maureene-I just managed to crack it and have a browse.  By chance, one of my 3 local doctor casualties had a brother who popped up- an article from July 1915 on his treating  hundreds of early gas casualties  at 8 CCS,Bailleul,  Very readable and very good on the early attempts to treat......  and totally unknown to me.

[Wexflyer]

On 23/09/2020 at 14:50, Maureene said:

1910 article  "The Practical Duties of a Quartermaster, Royal Army Medical Corps, in a General Hospital, and Inferentially in any other Field Medical Unit" about the situation in South Africa

from Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps

https://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/jramc/14/3/285.full.pdf

 

Cheers

Maureen

 

But this only reinforces the original discrepancy that GUEST is trying to resolve. The quartermaster position described in that article is that for a soldier-clerk, not a medical doctor.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

On 25/09/2020 at 09:17, Wexflyer said:

 

But this only reinforces the original discrepancy that GUEST is trying to resolve. The quartermaster position described in that article is that for a soldier-clerk, not a medical doctor.

More like a modern day medical director then?

[MaureenE]

On 25/09/2020 at 09:17, Wexflyer said:

 

But this only reinforces the original discrepancy that GUEST is trying to resolve. The quartermaster position described in that article is that for a soldier-clerk, not a medical doctor.

We must have interpreted the article in different ways. To me, being responsible for all aspects of a hospital other than clinical care, is a responsible job involving lots of decision making and  requiring initiative, including  if medical supplies are not easily to be had and substitutes have to be produced.  

 

The article spoke about running a 1000 bed hospital. In addition to the patients there would be all the hospital staff to care for the patients. Being responsible for all medical supplies and equipment , and for all other supplies for patients and staff, in addition to matters of sanitation and building construction,  to me,  all add up to a very responsible job, not the work that a soldier-clerk could do.

 

[Wexflyer]

4 hours ago, Maureene said:

We must have interpreted the article in different ways. To me, being responsible for all aspects of a hospital other than clinical care, is a responsible job involving lots of decision making and  requiring initiative, including  if medical supplies are not easily to be had and substitutes have to be produced.  

 

The article spoke about running a 1000 bed hospital. In addition to the patients there would be all the hospital staff to care for the patients. Being responsible for all medical supplies and equipment , and for all other supplies for patients and staff, in addition to matters of sanitation and building construction,  to me,  all add up to a very responsible job, not the work that a soldier-clerk could do.

 

 

But wasn't clerk specifically mentioned along the way? In fact, there is a section where the author specifically says that a wise/good CO would not try to make the quartermaster also do his "previous job" of clerk.

Edited 25 September , 2020 by Wexflyer

[davidbohl]

Here's the term used in context during the Boer War, hope it may help.

 

From the BNA