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Australian Army Medical Services

Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps

The Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) is a Administrative Corps of the Australian Army. It was formed in February 1951 from the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service. A Corps Badge was introduced in 1951 with the motto Pro Humanitate (for Humanity). They are being treated first as they can trace their history as a formed Corps for longer that the RAAMC.

History

Foundation

The history of RAANC can be traced back to the formation of the Australian Army Nursing Service on 13 August 1898 in New South Wales. At the time it was made up of one Lady Superintendent and 24 nurses. The service saw its first action in the Boer war, when the New South Wales and Victorian governments arranged for a detachment of nurses to deploy with their troops to Africa. Groups and individual nurses from Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland also served in the Anglo-Boer War. Due to the performance of the nurses in that conflict, an order was given in 1902 for the formation of the Australian Army Nursing Service under the control of the Federal Government. It is this order's promulgation, 1 July 1903, which is celebrated as RAANC Corps day.

First World War

More than 2,000 AANS female nurses served overseas in the World War I with 423 serving in Australia, together with 130 Australians who had enlisted with the AANS but were transferred to work with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. 21 AANS died on service together with 2 from the QAIMNSR and at least 388 were decorated.

Second World War

In World War II, more than 3,580 women joined the AANS with 71 members losing their lives (23 in battle and 18 as a result of accident or illness). Thirty-eight nurses became prisoners of war. A total of 137 decorations were awarded to members of the AANS, including two George Medals. In 1945, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, became the Honorary Colonel and in 1948 the service was renamed as the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service. It became part of the Australian Regular Army the following year, eventually becoming a corps in February 1951 - the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC).

Royal Australian Army Medical Corps

Royal Australian Army Medical Corps Cap Badge

History

The Australian Army Medical Corps was formed on 1 July 1902 by combining the medical services of the armed forces of the various Australian colonies that had been in existence before Federation, which had their origins in the medical structures of the British forces that had deployed to Australia during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The corps' first deployment was to the Second Boer War, where it provided a field hospital and a stretcher bearer company attached in support of the Australian Commonwealth Horse, the first contingent of Australian troops deployed operationally following Federation. The force's role was limited as by the time it was deployed the large-scale fighting was basically over.

Prior to this, though, the various colonial forces had also contributed medical detachments to the war in support of their own and other British and colonial forces, and these units – consisting of various types of medical personnel including surgeons, dentists, cooks, drivers, and bearers – had been heavily involved. One officer, Lieutenant Neville Howse, of the New South Wales Army Medical Corps, received the Victoria Cross for his actions during the war; Howse eventually rose to become Director of Medical Services within the Australian Imperial Force. An earlier deployment had also occurred in 1885, when a New South Wales Contingent of infantry and artillery was deployed to assist British forces in the Sudan conflict, a small medical detachment had also been deployed.

The development of medical units within the Australian colonial forces had begun in the mid-1850s when the colonial military forces had been in their infancy. Initially, it had been limited largely to single doctors who were attached to infantry units in an honorary role, but as the colonial military forces had become more sophisticated, various medical units or corps were formed, consisting of a variety of personnel including doctors, non-commissioned officers, orderlies, bearers, and dispensers as well as cooks and drivers. Within each colony, these units were tasked with various duties including conducting medical examinations of recruits, providing emergency medical aid during field manoeuvres; initially, they were unpaid volunteers, but eventually a system of paid part-time soldiering developed. The reliance upon part-time professionals is a common theme in the corps' development, due largely the nature of the specialised skill sets required by some personnel, particularly doctors and surgeons; however, as the corps' role has expanded, it has become a broader organisation, with personnel serving in many capacities including professional and non-professional roles including stretcher bearers, orderlies, medical assistants, pathologists, radiographers, pharmacists, drivers, physiotherapists, as well as the traditional domains of the medical officer, and in many of these areas, particularly after the Second World War there has been an expansion of the size of the corps' regular personnel, although Reservists continue to provide much of its higher clinically trained personnel.

Since its involvement in South Africa, the corps' role as a supporting branch of the Australian Army has expanded considerably as the importance of medicine as an enabler to successful military operations has become apparent. As a result, the corps has seen service during all major Australian Army deployments and wars since its establishment, including the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, Vietnam. In the post-Vietnam era, RAAMC personnel have supported operational deployments to the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq and peacekeeping missions in Namibia, Cambodia, Somalia, Rwanda, Bougainville and East Timor.

The "Royal" prefix was granted on 10 November 1948, and the day is celebrated as a corps' day.

Museum

The Australian Army Museum, Bandiana was established in October 1997. It collects, preserves and exhibits the history of various corps of the Australian Army including:

• Royal Australian Army Chaplains Department
• Royal Australian Corps of Transport
• Royal Australian Army Medical Corps
• Royal Australian Army Dental Corps
• Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps
• Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
• Australian Army Catering Corps
• Australian Army Psychology Corps
• Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps
• Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps (disbanded)
• Royal Australian Army Service Corps (disbanded).