British]
645
ARMIES
General Stores. Circular tents . . 18,000 or thereabouts Blankets . over 420,000 Waterpoof sheets ,, 300,000 Camp kettles ,, 37,000 Horse rugs about 100,000 Sets of ten or six spare mule harness, nearly 6,000 The medical department is administered from the War Office by a director-general and his staff. It is now formed into the Royal Army Medical Corps, to which Medical officers are gazetted with commissions. The Depart Army Medical Staff consists of ten surgeonsmeat. general. The Royal Army Medical Corps consists of colonels, lieutenant-colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants. There are about 900 officers in all, besides 50 quartermasters. There are 36 warrant officers, 336 staff-sergeants and sergeants, and before the war rather more than 2000 rank and file. These were supplemented during the war by civil surgeons specially engaged for the war, both in South Africa and at home, and by the employment of volunteer medical orderlies. The chief general hospitals are at Netley, Woolwich, and Aldershot. There are also station hospitals, lunatic hospitals, and hospitals for women and children. For service in the field, bearer companies, field hospitals, station hospitals, base hospitals, and general hospitals at various points on the lines of communication have been set up. Convalescent homes, both for officers and men, were found necessary in the South African campaign, and would probably be always used in any protracted operations. In the army corps organization one bearer company and one field hospital is attached to each brigade of cavalry or infantry, one field hospital to each of the divisions as such, and one field hospital to the corps troops. With the army corps there are six bearer companies, ten field hospitals. During a campaign a medical officer is attached to each unit and has especial charge of the regimental stretcher-bearers. Each “ general hospital ” has a staff of women nurses, consisting of one superintendent, eight nursing sisters, twro female servants. An attempt has been made of late years to connect the militia and volunteers more closely with the regular forces by constituting every corps, whether of militia Auxiliary or volunteers, as a “ battalion ” in name at least Forces. of a particular regiment of which other regular battalions formed part. As the several battalions of regulars and militia or volunteers are never or only accidentally associated, the arrangement is little more than a paper one. Independently of this the volunteers have been nominally formed into brigades under “brigadiers.” These officers have little or nothing to connect them with their brigades except on those few occasions when the brigade is, as a whole, brought out to a camp of exercise. Normally during peace time all the work of inspecting and carrying on the correspondence of volunteer battalions and batteries is done by the colonel of the “regimental district,” who has under him the depot of the regular battalions and all the militia and volunteers of the territorial region to which the regiment is assigned. He in fact constitutes the link between the several auxiliary forces and the regular battalions. The adjutants of the volunteers, and the adjutants and quartermasters of the militia, and the non-commissioned officers forming the “permanent staff” of the militia, and the instructors of the volunteers, are detailed from the regular battalions of the regiment, but at that point the connexion has hitherto stopped. The numbers of militia on the 1st January 1901 were 92,741, and of volunteers, 277,900. During the year 1900, in consequence of the Boer war, the whole of the militia were embodied, that is to say, called up for
home service and regularly brought on pay. Thirty-five battalions, having volunteered for service abroad, were sent to South Africa, St Helena, or the Mediterranean. This has been the customary practice of war in relation to the militia, and constitutes them an exceedingly valuable force for setting free the active army in the field. Unfortunately, during peace time their opportunities for rifle practice had been so limited that comparatively few if any of these men had been through any musketry training before they sailed for their foreign station. In the case of the volunteers the patriotic zeal of the year 1899-1900 led to a new departure, and created a new link between them and the regular battalions of the “ regiments” to which they both belonged. Seven thousand volunteers joined by companies the regular battalions, and were enlisted as regular soldiers for the year, while 2163 volunteers enlisted in the army reserve. Seeing that the “ British army ” is the army as it is in war, it appears advisable to show in the following Table A, taken from the report of the inspector-general of recruiting, the different sources from Avhich the ^British number of regularly enlisted forces for home army. and colonial service had been increased from 290,914, at which it stood on 1st January 1900 after the general mobilization, to 406,443 by the 1st January 1901. This shows only non - commissioned officers and men, and allows for loss by death (10,153) and other causes, in all, including deaths, 37,269. It is put after the auxiliary forces because it will be seen how largely they contributed to swell the total. The regular forces on the Indian establishment of all arms and ranks are given in the army estimates at 63,023. These, the total establishment of officers, the militia (100,008), various colonial militia, the remainder of the army reserve after mobilization, the native Indian regiments (22,313), the yeomanry (8657), the volunteers (277,900), and the numbers on the general staff have to be added to those in Table A. Together they make up a total, exclusive of the local forces of the self-governing colonies, of about 840,000. Table A.—Home and Colonial Establishment (Rank and File). Effective on 1st January 1900. 1st January 1901. 1,244 1,518 Household cavalry 30,075 Cavalry of the line , 21,389 8,824 Imperial Yeomanry . Royal Artillery— Horse and Meld . . 25,888 34,046 24,886 Garrison . . . 21,982 Royal Engineers . . 9,436 12,780 13,845 Foot Guards . . . 11,740 Infantry of the line . . 178,745 216,221 Infantry, reserve regiments 17,961 Colonial troops . . . 8,512 30,221 City of London Imperial Volunteers1 . Army Service Corps . . 5,069 7,536 Army Ordnance Corps . 1,593 1,984 Royal Army Medical Corps 4,068 5,551 Army Pay Corps . . 558 621 Army Post Office Corps . 160 374 All arms .
.
. 290,384
406,443 The term “mobilization” is one which is in fact due to the short-service system. It implies the calling up of the “ reserve ” created by relegating to civil life the trained soldiers who are held to serve when Mobilization. called upon. It implies the complete equipment and clothing of all that part of the army which is “ mobilized ” with equipment and clothing not necessary for peace service, but kept ready for war. It implies a 1
Effective (1900) less than one year, 1664.
