General Headquarters Army Routine Order of 174 of 5 October 1914 laid down the definition of a Motor Ambulance Convoy. They would be formed for duty under the orders of the Adjutant General at GHQ for the evacuation of the sick and wounded. The convoy was to be organised into “A”, B” and “C” Sections.
Background
The following explanation of the purpose and formation of the Motor Ambulance Convoys is taken from the British Official History of Medical Services, volume 1, by Major-General Sir W. G. Macpherson:
“The principle of employing mechanical transport with medical units led to the formation of new classes of medical units not contemplated in the original scheme of mobilization. These were the motor ambulance convoys and various descriptions of mobile laboratories.
When the expeditionary force sailed for France [in August 1914], the general scheme of ambulance transport for the collection of sick and wounded to the main dressing stations depended on the [horse-drawn] ambulance wagons of the field ambulances and, for bringing them back to the clearing hospitals and ambulance trains, on the mechanical transport of supply columns returning empty to railheads, supplemented by such local transport as could be requisitioned for the purpose. This scheme broke down from the commencement of operations owing chiefly to the fact that the empty supply column vehicles did not form a unit under the control of the medical services. There was always the risk of conflict between the urgency of getting them back for supplies and their retention by the medical services until they had received and discharged their loads of wounded.
The need of mechanical transport under the control of the medical services was also felt at the bases for bringing the sick and wounded from the trains to the hospitals, some of which were being opened at a considerable distance from the detraining stations.
These considerations led to the despatch to France by the War Office of large numbers of motor ambulance cars which were eventually formed into definite R.A.M.C. units as motor ambulance convoys. In a letter dated the 20th August, 1914, the D.M.S. informed the D.G., A.M.S., that he had demanded 60 motor ambulance cars for this purpose. As many as possible of the existing motor ambulance cars belonging to the military authorities in the United Kingdom were then sent to France. Very few existed in the country, but seven of them went overseas between the 22nd and 24th August, 1914. At this time the Wolseley Company had six-cylinder chassis of many cars ready for private purchasers and placed them at the disposal of the War Office, together with many of their employees who specially enlisted in the Army Service Corps as drivers. Ambulance car bodies of a type approved by the War Office were rapidly built on the chassis. Fifty went to France on the 7th September, 1914, and 30 more by the end of the month. These cars were eventually organized as No. 1 Motor Ambulance Convoy.
A second convoy was formed shortly afterwards out of a heterogeneous number of cars got together in Paris by the representatives of the British Red Cross Society there. They were eventually replaced by cars with War Office pattern bodies, and became No. 2 Motor Ambulance Convoy. By this time the formation of motor ambulance convoys, in proportion to the number of divisions in the field, had become definitely authorized, and the War Office by the end of 1914 had prepared and despatched as many as 324 motor ambulance cars to France. From them the 3rd and 6th Motor Ambulance Convoys were formed. No. 4 Convoy was formed by cars provided by the British Red Cross Society, and No. 5 by Captain du Cros, M.P., who formed the convoy and took it over at his own expense. These formed the first motor ambulance convoys. Subsequent convoys were made up of motor ambulance cars presented by various generous donors, local committees, and the British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John, as well as of cars purchased by the War Office. Thus No. 7 Motor Ambulance Convoy cars were all presented by the Maharajah of Gwalior ; No. 8 by the Scottish boroughs and counties. By the end of 1915 eighteen motor ambulance convoys had been sent overseas. They became the units for transport of sick and wounded between field ambulances and clearing hospitals, and between clearing hospitals and railheads, those units, in fact, which were foreshadowed as essential in the memorandum submitted by the medical section of the directorate of military operations in 1906 [which proposed developments in the light of experience of the recent Second Boer War]. The total number of convoys mobilized before the termination of the war was 48.”
Establishment
- The convoy would consist of a total of 50 motor ambulance cars, 3 lorries, 2 motor cars and 1 motor cycle with the following personnel.
- “A”, or Headquarters, Section would have 20 motor ambulance cars, 1 lorry for mechanical transport stores, 1 lorry for first aid, 1 lorry for general supplies, 1 motor car for the commanding officer and 1 motor car for the Army Service Corps officer
- “B Section would have 15 motor ambulance cars and 1 motor cycle for RAMC officer
- “C” Section would have 15 motor ambulance cars
- Personnel of the convoy would be a mix of Royal Army Medical Corps and Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport:
- 5 Officers:
- 3 Officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps (1 Major in command of the convoy, 2 Captains or Subalterns (Lieutenants or Second Lieutenants))
- 1 Captain or Subaltern (Lieutenant or Second Lieutenant) of the Army Service Corps
- 1 Chaplain of the Army Chaplain’s Department
- 129 Other ranks:
- 14 other ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps
- 1 Quartermaster Sergeant
- 3 Corporals, 1 per Section
- 10 Privates and Drivers, 3 to “A” Section; 2 each to “B” and “C”; 3 as cooks, one to each Section
- 115 other ranks of the Army Service Corps
- 2 Sergeants (one being appointed as a Foreman)
- 3 Corporals (one being a Fitter and one a Turner)
- 110 Privates and Drivers (100 being ambulance car drivers, 2 lorry drivers of mechanical transport stores, 2 chauffeurs, 2 drivers of first aid lorry, 1 wheeler and 1 smith).
- 14 other ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps
In memory
This page is dedicated to Richard Selway Davies, Private M2/183708 of the Army Service Corps, who I researched for a private client in 2014. Richard served with 21st MAC and earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his work at Marcoing near Cambrai on 30 November 1917. “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. During an enemy attack he drove the wounded away in his motor ambulance under a heavy gas-shell bombardment and machine gun fire. His petrol tank was twice pierced by bullets, and to keep it from emptying he got out a tin of petrol and instructed one of the wounded to keep the tank filled from it as he drove, thereby preventing the stoppage of the ambulance in an exposed position in full view of the enemy. Later, when the ambulance was bogged, with the assistance of one man he carried all the wounded 1½ miles under shell fire to a place of safety. He set a splendid example of courage and resource.”
Links
Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport units