How a corps of just 40 permanent medical officers built a battlefield healthcare system from almost nothing, and what it cost the men and women who held it together.
Great essay Mike, one quibble though "Royal" Canadian Army Medical Corps? I thought that, like the UK, we have the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Navy, but just the Canadian Army.
Good catch, Keith, and fair to flag it. The "Royal" prefix actually does apply here. The Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps existed from 1904 until unification in 1968, when the separate services merged into Canadian Forces. It's one of those cases where army corps carried "Royal" designations individually, distinct from the broader army title. Today it's the Royal Canadian Medical Service. The army itself never got "Royal," but plenty of its corps did.
On a somewhat related note, one of my neighbours growing up was a veteran, a small quiet bachelor who survived Dieppe. If he had family, I never saw them. When I was young, my parents asked me to help him shovel snow and stack wood for his stove. He lived out his years self-medicating with liquor.
Great essay Mike, one quibble though "Royal" Canadian Army Medical Corps? I thought that, like the UK, we have the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Navy, but just the Canadian Army.
Good catch, Keith, and fair to flag it. The "Royal" prefix actually does apply here. The Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps existed from 1904 until unification in 1968, when the separate services merged into Canadian Forces. It's one of those cases where army corps carried "Royal" designations individually, distinct from the broader army title. Today it's the Royal Canadian Medical Service. The army itself never got "Royal," but plenty of its corps did.
Thanks Mike.
On a somewhat related note, one of my neighbours growing up was a veteran, a small quiet bachelor who survived Dieppe. If he had family, I never saw them. When I was young, my parents asked me to help him shovel snow and stack wood for his stove. He lived out his years self-medicating with liquor.