CHAPTER I
THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY MEDICAL CORPS AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR—THE CALL FOR HOSPITALS—APPEAL TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND THE RESPONSE—RAISING THE UNITS.
CHAPTER I
Prior to the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Australian Army Medical Corps consisted of one whole-time medical officer, the Director-General of Medical Services, Surgeon-General Williams, C.B., a part-time principal medical officer in each of the six States (New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania), and a number of regimental officers. With the exception of the Director-General, all the medical officers were engaged in civil practice, which absorbed the greater portion of their energy.
The system of compulsory military training which came into operation in 1911 was creating a new medical service, by the appointment of Area Medical Officers, whose functions were to render the necessary medical services in given areas, apart from camp work. These also were mostly men in civil practice, to whom the military service was a supplementary means of livelihood.