Watson, a Doctor and a Soldier

[mightymads]

Thanks everyone who recommended books about WWI a while ago. It turned out that it’s not easy to get some of them in the part of the world where I live, but I did manage to lay my hands on a few. 

 

Doctors in the Great War by Ian R. Whitehead was an interesting read. It’s well-researched if a bit dry, and it helps to understand how the medical service was organised on the Western Front. 

 

The most insightful part for me was the chapter with an overview of the British army medical service before WWI. It gives context to Watson’s experiences during his service in Afghanistan. In many ways it was an eye-opener.

 

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) did not exist before 1898. It means that medics in the army did not have any real authority and were not considered to be equals with the combatants. Hence the appalling situation of poor sanitary conditions and ineffective medical care which Florence Nightingale worked to improve during the Crimean War (1853-1856).

 

The lack of authority conferred on Medical Officers was an expression of prejudice against them which was spread in military circles. They were not regarded as fellow officers, but merely as ‘camp followers’; some regiments did not allow the Medical Officers to dine with other officers in the mess, whilst the Medical Officer, no matter how long he had served, was always subordinate to the most junior subaltern. In addition to social ostracism, the medical man often faced discrimination with regard to pay and distribution of honours. [...]

 

The lowly status of the Medical Officer was damaging in two respects. On the one hand, his lack of authority added to the inefficiency of the medical arrangements hampered any attempts he might make to improve the lot of the sick and wounded. On the other hand, it undermined the morale within the service, and further discouraged young medical men from joining the service which was considered by the profession at large to have been passed over by the improvements in medical knowledge and practice.

 

Things improved a bit by the time Watson served. In 1878 the pay was raised, but in terms of authority there was little change. It explains how bleak Watson’s perspectives were after the university if he chose to join the army. He must have been virtually penniless, without any hope to start a practice of his own and most likely had no other opportunities. In comparison, ACD worked as a ship’s surgeon and later scraped just marginally enough money with the help of his mother and sisters to practice in Southsea. 

 

A belief remained amongst combatant officers that the health of the men was beneath their interest. This insured that the necessity for good hygiene and sanitation continued to be ignored by the Army. [...]

 

The attitude of the Army that nothing could be done to prevent men from drinking contaminated water if they were thirsty, and the ignorance of the men on matters of hygiene clearly demonstrated the folly of not paying heed to the advice of the medical profession. [...]

 

The lack of authority vested in Medical Officers prevented them from making sanitary improvements, and their low status ensured that little notice was taken of their views.

 

As a result, typhoid and other contagious diseases caused by poor sanitation were rampant. It sheds some light as to why Watson was ‘struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions’.

 

With formation of RAMC and further acknowledgement of importance of medical care, the picture was quite different when Watson re-enlisted to serve during WWI. At last the medical men were regarded with due respect.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

You may be interested in John McCrae a Canadian doctor who wrote In Flanders Fields.

[mightymads]

Thank you for the rec!

[rachelindeed]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing these passages, I had no idea.

Did the book mention whether most Medical Officers were trained doctors, or whether that was rare in the Victorian army? In WWII my impression is that medics were often just ordinary men with no medical degrees or prior training; they received some medical training from the army when they were designated to serve as medics, and were then set loose to do the best they could in the field.

As far as I know according to the conventions of WWII, medics didn't carry weapons and were supposed to be considered non-combatants (meaning by the rules of war enemy troops weren't supposed to shoot at them). I don't know if this was true in the late Victorian era, but I wonder if their non-combatant status might have been part of why they were looked down on and considered junior to all the combatant officers...

Which of course raises the question of why Watson had an army revolver to bring home with him.

[mightymads]

Medical officers were trained doctors as they performed surgeries. Medical orderlies and stretcher-bearers could have no prior medical training before the army. Their task was to provide first aid to the wounded on battlefield and then take them away from the front line and deliver them to Aid Posts or Casualty Clearing Stations where urgent surgeries were performed. From there the wounded were sent further to Field Hospitals, if I remember the chain well. That was the order during WWI.

Moreover, according to the book, by WWI Medical Officers had enough authority to take leadership of combatants of lower ranks, if need be.

About medics and weapons during WWI:

Snipers were damnable... one medic shot one from 400 yards this week and was not reprimanded (an excerpt from a war diary)

Such an action contravened the Geneva convention, and like the instances of Medical Officers assuming military command, does not appear to have been a regular occurrence... And although few doctors fired in active operations, many let off steam by practicing with revolvers or bomb-throwing.

Others, however, not only considered such skills to be useless to Medical Officers but felt that, as non-combatants, they ought to have nothing to do with weapons. D. McAlpine was convinced that he should not be carrying a revolver and gave his to a combatant officer.

I haven’t read much on WWII, but I know that in Russia during WWII doctors with degrees received an army training and military ranks. Their main task was to provide medical help, but they were also taught to shoot as there were often cases when they needed to defend the wounded.

In order to join the army, Watson, upon graduating from the university, studied at The Army Medical School at Netley where the future army doctors were expected to wear the uniform, obey the army discipline, and participate in parades. So he must have received military training too together with studying military surgery. I have a post about Watson’s prep studies, and I’ll repost it to this community.

[rachelindeed]

Fascinating, thank you for sharing these details! I see, so medical officers were different from medics; the former were stationed behind the lines for surgeries and hospital care, the latter were working in the field to retrieve the wounded, triage their wounds, perform emergency first aid and transport them to the doctors in the rear. I believe it worked that way in WWII as well, I was just confused about whether a medical officer meant a 'medic' or something different.

It's also interesting to hear more about the doctors' non-combatant status and the ways in which it was or was not adhered to in wartime. It's not surprising, I suppose, that a number of them learned to shoot in preparation for defense or as a way of venting their stress.

I do remember that passage from A Study in Scarlet in which Watson mentions he went to Netley, and I've always been curious about what that sort of training would have entailed. Thanks so much for sharing what you've learned!

[mightymads]

Glad you find it useful! It’s always good to know that the info I post is of some use :)

[mightymads]

Just wanted to say that I love your recent prompt posted in the prompt box! My first reaction was to grab it and I do want to either write a story about or make it a subplot. I left in unclaimed in case someone is interested and writes sooner than me. With two major WIPs which I must finish this year I don't know when I'm going to fill, but I most certainly would like to one day. This fill will require a quite a good plotting and a few thousand of words. Definitely not a quick write but I love how detailed it is.

[rachelindeed]

Oh yay, I'm so happy the ideas in there sparked your interest! I'd love to see it as a plot or subplot in some future fic of yours, no matter when you might have time for it or whether someone else claims it, too :) And good luck with both your WIPs, I very genuinely stand in awe of your productivity! I tend to write, like, maybe 10K a year and I'm tapped! :P

[mightymads]

One WIP is from last year and the other is being in the process for years, so I'm not a quick writer either. But really, there's a lot to think about in your prompt. Firstly, Holmes was a man of habit, as Watson pointed out several times, and he was loath to change things he got used to. Secondly, I suppose, Mrs. Hudson's household was a trusty one. Obviously, they couldn't be bribed and didn't tell stories out of school. And thirdly, Holmes being a Bohemian soul didn't care much about appearances. By the time he was rich his reputation worked for him, and he liked to impress his clients with his quick deductions about their occupation and past life rather than the grandeur of his rooms. Besides, as you mentioned, people of different classes came seeking Holmes's help, so staying in his Baker Street flat he remained available for people of humble backgrounds.

[rachelindeed]

Yes, I like the way you break this down on so many character levels. I do suspect that Holmes's choice to present himself and his business that way had multiple levels: sentimental, strategic, bohemian, and principled - in hopes of not intimidating away clients who'd think they couldn't afford him, and as a way of twitting any well-heeled visitors who were normally too proud to walk upstairs to someone's small first floor parlor and sit down amid the chemical apparatus and the jackknife in the mantel and the criminal relics occasionally turning up in unexpected places :) What did Neil Gibson or the Prime Minister or the Illustrious Client's representative think of it all? What did it mean to Kitty Winters, or to poor Dr. Trevelyan, who'd gotten himself into such a mess because he didn't think he'd ever make it if he tried to work from a house like this? It's fun to think about :)

[mightymads]

Yes, exactly :) The second prompt about Mycroft is awesome too! Thanks so much for joining!

[rachelindeed]

My pleasure, thank you for running all this!

[laurajv]

re: Watson's finances. I've always assumed that his lack of money was due to his elder brother, who inherited their father's estate & then managed to lose most of the money due to his drinking habits.

[mightymads]

It could be so. Thanks for sharing your headcanon!

[laurajv]

I shall share my headcanon's supporting evidence:

John inherits his older brother's watch (which was previously his father's). The watch is quite an expensive one -- Sherlock estimates its value at fifty guineas (which would've been around $5000 in today's money, or around 52 pounds at the time. Watches were much more cheaply available -- you could get them for 15 pounds or so (and probably for less, but I know for sure around 15 pounds). So John grew up in a household where his father was able to purchase a quite expensive luxury version of a useful item. Primogeniture was likely not mandatory, but John's older brother seems to have inherited quite a bit of money along with the watch. (Sherlock deduces that he managed to waste all of his money.)

John's father also died many years ago; it is possible that John was a minor when this happened.

My guess is that the elder Watson had reached his majority, inherited, provided for John's education, but lost his money during the course of that education (possibly some of the watch-pawnings we know about were to pay for the completion of the education), and when John graduated he found out the situation & therefore went into the Army.

[mightymads]

I have a similar headcanon, tbh: that John’s brother was at least ten years older. The family was initially well off as the father had a successful career, but later he turned to drink and died when John was still a child. The brother took over the business and for some time all was well. John attended a good public school, but then there was a tragedy in his brother’s family: the brother’s wife died in childbirth. That turned the brother to drink also, and by the time John finished school they were poor. Prosperous relatives paid for John’s studies at the university but naturally he had no means to start a practice and joined the army. And so he is protective of his brother’s memory rather than being bitter and hence his lashing out at Holmes.