Publication Date:
2024-04-01
Description:
"An Equal Burden forms the first scholarly study of the Army Medical Services in the First World War to focus on the roles and experiences of the men of the ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). These men, through their work as stretcher bearers and orderlies, provided a range of labour, both physical and emotional, in aid of the sick and wounded. They were not professional medical caregivers, yet were called upon to provide medical care, however rudimentary; they served in uniform, under military discipline, yet were forbidden, as non-combatants, from carrying weapons. Their service as men in wartime, was thus unique.
Structured both chronologically and thematically, this study examines both the work that RAMC rankers undertook and its importance to the running of the chain of medical evacuation. It additionally explores the gendered status of these men within the medical, military and cultural hierarchies of a society engaged in total war, locating their service within the context of that of doctors, female nurses and combatant servicemen. Through close readings of official documents, personal papers, and cultural representations, both verbal and visual, it argues that the ranks of the RAMC formed a space in which non-commissioned servicemen, through their many roles, defined and redefined medical caregiving as men’s work in wartime."
Keywords:
Royal Army Medical Corps
;
First World War
;
masculinity
;
non-combatants
;
military medicine
;
care giving
;
gender history
;
cultural representation
;
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology
;
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
;
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHW Military history::NHWR Specific wars and campaigns::NHWR5 First World War
;
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999::3MPB Early 20th century c 1900 to c 1950::3MPBF c 1910 to c 1919::3MPBFB c 1914 to c 1918 (World War One period)
;
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing
Language:
English
Format:
image/jpeg
Format:
image/jpeg
Format:
image/jpeg
Format:
image/jpeg
Permalink
