Fit to fight – from military hygiene to wellbeing in the British Army
Journal: Military Medical Research
Year: 2020

This paper reviews the historical evolution of the language and organization surrounding the health of personnel in the British Army from 'hygiene' through to 'wellbeing'. It starts by considering the health of the army in the mid-nineteenth century and the emergence of military hygiene as a professional subject. It continues by looking at advances in military hygiene in the two world wars. Hygiene was replaced by the term 'health' in the 1950s as the collective noun used by professionals workin