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!