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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    REPORT. Sir, In accordance with the request contained in your letters of the 21st January and 5th March ] 889, we submit our Report as to Status, Pay, and Conditions of Service of the Medical Officers of the Army and Navy. Our proceedings have been materially shortened, owing to the large quantity of evidence and other public information already existing upon the subjects of our enquiry. \Ye have had the advantage of perusing the evidence taken before the Select Committees of the House of Commons on Army and NaAy Estimates in the years 1887 and 1888. With reference to the Army, we have had before us the report and proceedings of Mr. Thompson's Committee, appointed in 1878, by tlie Secretary of State for War, to which frequent reference will be found in our report. PART I.—ARMY. 1. Full Pay. The present rates of full pay Nvere established by the Royal Warrant of 1879, which carried out the recommendations made by Mr. Thompson's War Office Committee of 1878. The insufficiency of the pay was proved to be one of the causes of the deficiency of candidates at that time for entry into the Army. The reasons for the changes made in 1879 will be found in the Report of the Committee of 1878; and, having made such enquiry as has been in our power, we find no reason to differ from the conclusions then arrived at. The rates of pay are adequate, and the Medical Officers are contented with Them ; there is nothing to show that the pay is extravagant, while the evidence which we have received leads us to doubt, whether, if lower rates were offered, the same class of Medical Officers would be obtained. Sir R. Thompson, having seen the recommendations of his Committee in operation, considers that the rates of pay have not proved excessive. None of the witnesses who have appeared before the Committee have suggested the possibility of reducing the present rates of pay. AYe have made careful enquiry from those persons whom we thought most likely to be able to suggest reductions, but without any success. 2, Retirement. The large proportion of retired to active Officers has of course attracted our attention. In the Army Estimates for 1889-90, excluding Quarter-Masters, 493 retired Officers are provided for against 915 Officers on the Active List, and the calculation made by the Actuaries of the War Office is, that the Retired List will, under the present system, amount to three-fourths of the Active List under normal conditions. It follows from this that the number of Officers now on the Retired List is less than it must be expected to become with the present establishment. The large number of retired Officers is owing to tAvo causes; first, the compulsory age of retirement, 60 for Surgeons-General and Deputy Surgeons- General, and 55 for the executive ranks ; and, secondly, to the right which every Medical Officer has to retire after 20 years' service. As the age for compulsory retirement in the executive ranks is fixed with reference to the age at which a Surgeon is fit to serve in a campaign, we do not see our way to propose any change here.