Report and evidence into the pay, status and conditions of service of medical officers of the army, with evidence concerning the Indian Service.

  • Great Britain. War Office. Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Pay, Status, and Conditions of Service of Medical Officers of the Army.
Date:
1890
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report and evidence into the pay, status and conditions of service of medical officers of the army, with evidence concerning the Indian Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    INSTRUCTIONS FOE THE COMMITTEE. War Office, 5th March 1889. My Lord, Adverting to the letter from this office of the 21st January, inviting your Lordship to preside on a Committee of Enquiry as to the Pay, Status, and Con- ditions of Service of Medical Officers of the Army and Navy, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Stanhope to state more fully, for your information, the circumstances under which the enquiry has become necessary. In 1888, the Select Committee on Army Estimates in their Third Report state that they are of opinion that the whole question of the pay of the Medical Service in all its ranks, the number of Medical Officers employed, and the periods of retirement, require the immediate consideration of the Secretary of State. The question of the number of Medical Officers employed has been considered by Mr. Stanhope, and it wiU not therefore be necessary to trouble you on this point; but Mr, Stanhope is desirous that your Committee should fully investigate and report on the other questions thus raised by the Committee of the House of Commons. The question of the status of these Officers raises the question of the rank of the Medical Officers viewed in relation to their combatant brethren. In December 1886 a Eoyal Warrant abolished relative rank in the Army, under which theretofore Medical Officers of the several grades had had precedence and allowances relatively with certain combatant grades, and substituted a classified schedule to regulate the allowances to be received by all Officers of the Army and its departments. The new Warrant left the Medical Officers ranking as those combatant Officers with whom previously they had ranked relatively. It made no pecuniary difierence whatever, and the contention of the War Office has always been that it made no practical difi'erence to the Medical Officers, The question has, however, been repeatedly raised in Parliament during 1887 and 1888, and is one on which Mr. Stanhope will be glad if the Committee will express an opinion. Lastly, Mr. Stanhope is desirous that the Committee should consider a correspondence which has taken place between this Office, the India Office, the Admiralty, and the Society of Apothecaries, as to the admission of Licentiates of the last-named body to compete for commissions on the Medical Staff. I am, &c., RALPH THOMPSON, The Earl of Camperdown, &c., &c. * The evidence regarding the Medical Department of the Royal Navy may be consulted by referring to the original report ; it is omitted from the following pages, as there appears to be no contentious matter between the Officers of this Service and the Government. (2508)