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.
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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.