In addition to the competitive examination of candidates for the post of Assistant Surgeon, for which a medical degree is preliminary, the successful candidates must spend four months at Netley, where the Army Medical School is now located (since 1863), in connection with the Royal Victoria Hospital (capable of receiving one thousand patients), where large numbers of invalid patients of the army are treated. Here, with every facility of study, observation, and practice, instruction is given by four professors, each with an experienced assistant, in military surgery, medicine, pathology, and hygiene, and all the specialities of the military hospital and field practice, peculiarities of climate, etc. After spending at least four months in the hospital, laboratory, museum, and lecture-rooms, the candidate is then examined for his commission as Assistant Surgeon.
[VETERINARY SURGEON.]
Although not exclusively for military service, all veterinary surgeons in the army must hold the diploma of the Royal Veterinary College in St. Pancras, London, or of the Veterinary School in Edinburgh.
[ARMY SCHOOLS FOR SOLDIERS AND SOLDIERS’ CHILDREN.]
In 1811, on the recommendation of the Duke of York, then Commander-in-Chief, a royal warrant was issued, authorizing the appointment of a sergeant-schoolmaster to each batallion for young recruits and the children of soldiers, with provision for room, fuel, and light in each regimental barrack, and allowance for necessary books and stationery. In 1846, to give greater efficiency and uniformity to the schools established under the warrant of 1811, a new warrant was issued, requiring that the sergeant-schoolmaster should obtain a certificate of fitness from the military training college at Chelsea, and ordering the appointment of an inspector of army schools. In 1854, the following classification of masters was introduced: First Class, at 7s. a day and certain allowances; Second Class, at 5s. 6d. per day; Third Class, at 4s. per day; and Assistants at 2s. The first-class schoolmaster was a warrant officer, and ranked next to those holding a commission; the second and third class ranked next to sergeant-major, and the assistants ranked as sergeants. At this time the privileges of the regimental schools were extended to the children of discharged soldiers, pensioners, and various persons employed about the barracks. A schoolmistress was also employed for the infant division of pupils, and for teaching needle-work to the girls. In 1863, the office of superintending schoolmaster, with a relative rank of ensign, was created, and four (since increased to twelve) from among the most experienced first-class masters, were appointed to inspect and examine all army schools in their several military districts, and candidates for pupil-teachers and schoolmistresses.
According to the report of the Council of Military Education, for March, 1870, there were two hundred and fifty-nine masters employed by the army schools, and four hundred and eighty-five mistresses and assistants in the children’s schools. In Great Britain there were three hundred and eighteen schools, and thirty-five thousand three hundred and seven non-commissioned officers and men on the books, nine thousand three hundred and fifty-nine boys and girls, besides 11,414 children in the infant schools.
[ASYLUM FOR SOLDIERS’ ORPHANS.]
Prior to the establishment of the Army Schools in 1811, two large institutions for orphan children of soldiers who had fallen in battle or serving at foreign stations, had been founded and maintained at the public expense.
The Royal Hibernian Institution at Dublin, Ireland, was commenced on a sum appropriated by the Irish Parliament in 1765, and chartered in 1769. It has large buildings, with thirty-four acres of land, and provides for four hundred and ten children on an annual parliamentary grant of twelve thousand pounds for its maintenance, besides the income from a small endowment.