Nursing and the RAMC in WWI

• Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)


  The Army's organization for medical care, responsible for the health of soldiers and the wounded
• RAMC


  • Consisted of doctors, surgeons, ambulance drivers, and orderlies
  • Grew from 9,000 men in 1914 to 113,000 by 1918
  • Included some conscientious objectors who wanted to contribute without fighting
• Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service


  Professional and well-trained nurses attached to the Army, providing hospital and field nursing near the front line
• Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service

  • Only 700 strong in 1914, grew to 23,000 by 1918
  • Provided the professional core of the nursing services
  • Frustrated by enthusiastic amateurs joining their ranks, but helped train and integrate them
• Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs)


  Volunteer nurses supporting the Army nurses of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service
• Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs)


  • 5,300 volunteered in 1914, 38,000 served in total
  • Financially self-sufficient, tended to be from better-off families
  • Started by scrubbing floors and cleaning, eventually took on more nursing jobs as they gained experience
• First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)


  Volunteer group of mostly upper-class women who aimed to bring the wounded back by horseback
• First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)

  • The horse riding never actually happened, instead they drove ambulances, trucks, and a mobile bath lorry
  • Only 116 were working in France in 1918, making them a small and not very significant addition
• World War One Medical Services required a variety of both professional and volunteer personnel, both men and women