Medicine and multimedia: In arduis fidelis: Centenary History of The Royal Army Medical Corps 1898-1998
Authors: John Pearn
Journal: BMJ (1998)

One in eight of all doctors who graduate from the medical schools in countries that follow the British system will serve in uniform at some stage of their medical careers. Military medicine is an important part of the profession more generally, and all will be touched by it in the wars of the unknowable future. Insofar as history is a tool for decision makers of the present, In arduis fidelis joins the ranks of major texts that chronicle the evolution of this important institution, the Royal Army Medical Corps—important not only in the army and in medicine, but in society itself.

The author, Dr (Colonel) John Blair is eminently suited to write this history. A senior surgeon in civilian life and a former national service officer in the regular army, he has given a professional lifetime of service in the Territorial Army. A former president of both the Scottish and British Societies of the History of Medicine, he is currently a reader in history at the University of St Andrews. This centenary history was written as an academic reference and to document the chronology of professional achievement of the RAMC. It has achieved these aims commendably. It describes both the development of military medicine as a specialty and the evolution of the “fitting in” of the RAMC from its foundation to its present role in the broader Department of Defence.

A particular strength of this book is its use of human anecdotes to make a point or to define a critical episode in the evolution of the RAMC. Almost every country in the world relies on its reserve medical officers to take their place during periods of regular service, both in peacetime garrison duty and during armed conflicts. Many doctors and medics recall their first period of national service or of other service, and a short anecdote describes one who “ended my military career with the Regular Army after two years active service in Korea .... However, military service is a disease and I was sufficiently affected to continue for a further thirty years with the Territorial Army.” Many readers of the BMJ will identify with this sentiment.

From a technical point of view, the book contains important reference sections on the evolution of initial treatment, in the field, of surgical shock and of the development of the military subspecialties within medicine (anaesthesia, radiology, and military psychiatry). For both professional and amateur historians, the broad sweep of military medical history over the past century is all here—the Boer war, the Mesopotamian campaign, the two world wars, and the Falklands and Gulf wars.

The author handles well that ubiquitous theme that runs constantly through the politico-social history of all defence health services—never enough money and the danger of reactive (rather than proactive) training when unexpected international contingencies arise. He also describes the team approach to military medicine, enunciated so well by Alexander Hood (in 1947): “Who was it then, who made up this team? .... We profited enormously from the large number of technicians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, laboratory workers, male nurses and many others who came into our ranks, yet the vast majority (of RAMC personnel) were drawn, quite untrained, from bench or counter, workshop or lathe, from study or the farm.”


All who love soldiering and who gain satisfaction from the practice of or reading about military medicine will enjoy this book. As the author says, “No Regiment, or any Corps can be prouder than we—the RAMC ... for we [are] the preservers of life ... and the conservers of manpower in a tiny country where manpower over many centuries has been the most crucial commodity.” 


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