Conserving British Manpower during and after the First World War

Abstract

This chapter explores how the military priority of manpower conservation affected the nature and wartime work of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) in three areas: recruitment, treatment, and rehabilitation. It considers how matters of manpower conservation shaped RAMC work in terms of general military recruitment and how the policies of recruitment affected the corps itself. It also examines how the work of the RAMC, particularly on manpower conservation, affected how soldiers viewed the corps. The chapter outlines how tensions between the army's medical priorities continued to play out in Britain's postwar policies on pensions and the rehabilitation of disabled ex-servicemen. It argues that the military prioritization of manpower conservation created a complex legacy for the RAMC as a branch of the armed services and for the provision of medical care under the auspices of the state.