Doctor

A doctor may also be known as a Surgeon or (prior to 1873) an Assistant Surgeon.

Records

British Library

• British Library webpage Indian Medical Service which lists the records available in the B.L.

Recommended reading

Books that may be helpful:

• An Alphabetical List of the Medical Officers of the Indian Army 1764-1838 by Edward Dodwell and James S. Miles (1839)
• Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930 by D.G. Crawford. Review in FIBIS Military Reading List.

External links

• Lists the Medical Officers of the Bengal Medical Service who died during the Mutiny Google Books
• Army Surgeons in the Afghan War and on the March to Kandahar from Garen Ewing’s website The Second Anglo Afghan War 1878-1880
• Indian Army Officers 1939-1945

Historical background

• A document from the Wellcome Library which lists records in the British Library relating to Medicine and Health, including manuscripts.
• The Wellcome Library, London has both books and archival material about the history of medicine.
• "Surgeons In India, Past and Present" "Past" and "Present,1854" The Calcutta Review v. 22 Published 1854 pages 217 and 242
• “European medicine in India from the sixteenth century” pdf 2004
• "Medicine amidst War and Commerce in Eighteenth-Century Madras" by Pratik Chakrabarti Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2006 Spring; 80(1): 1–38
• Medical History of British India. Nearly 50 Disease and Public Health reports from 19th and 20th century British India, from the National Library of Scotland, available online.

Working conditions and duties

• Pension situation in Bengal in 1827. Letter in Oriental Herald, Volume 14, 1827 Google Books
• Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger by John McCosh M.D. published 1841 (This link gives details of the author's photographic work and Army career.He retired in 1856).
• Rules for appointment in 1848 from The Oriental Interpreter and Treasury of East India Knowledge: A Companion to "The Hand-book of British India. by Joachim Hayward Stocqueler 1848, page 297 Google Books
  

For appointment procedures, refer to the Individuals section below and George Aldred

• Handbook for Medical Officers of H.M. Service in India by Charles Alexander Gordon M.D. published 1851 (written 1846) -Hints on the Duties of Medical Officers
• "The Loodianah Field Hospital, With Remarks On The State of The Army Medical Department in India" by John Murray, M.D., Field Surgeon, page 158, Medical Times published in 1849.Read about a Field Hospital after battle in 1846, including medical details, with the slightly wounded carried out on elephants.
• Article, "The Medical Service of the British Army", with a section on India page 435 The British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review Or Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine and Surgery Published 1855 [1]
• 'The Logistics of a Field Hospital" from the book Army Hygiene by Charles Alexander Gordon M.D. published 1866. The chapter is called "Field Arrangements in India" page 255.Read about the number of camels required.
• Madras Quarterly Medical Journal 1839 to 1844 - many interesting articles by Madras surgeons including medical reports on various regiments.
• Regulations of the Indian Medical Service in 1905 Google Books

Other duties

Some surgeons were engaged in work which today would be regarded as scientific or senior administrative roles. Most of the botanists in the earlier years were surgeons. WCB Eatwell MD was ‘First Asst. and Opium Examiner. Board of Customs, Salt and Opium’. He was the author of “Report no.1: On the Poppy Cultivation, and the Benares Opium Agency” from Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal 1851 Google Books

Individuals

• William Hamilton Surgeon Wikipedia Died 1717. In gratitude for the success of the medical treatment given to him by Hamilton, the Mughal Emperor , Furrukhsiyar, made generous gifts to the English surgeon. He also allowed the East India company to purchase various villages which enabled fortification of their position around Calcutta and greatly strengthened their trading presence in Bengal. Hamilton's profession, therefore, played a significant role in establishing the early influence of the East India Company.
• Andrew Jukes from Encyclopedia Iranica. Appointed Assistant Surgeon 1798
• Diseases of India by Sir James Annesley, 3rd edition. Google books. Commences with details of his career as a Military Surgeon in the Madras Presidency from 1800 until he retired in 1838, after five years on the Medical Board.
• Narrative of the Campaign of the Indus in Sind and Kaubool in 1838-9 by Richard Hartley Kennedy M.D. Chief of the Medical Staff of the Bombay Division of the Army of the Indus. 1840 Volume 1 Volume 2
• The history of the Sikhs: containing the lives of the Gooroos; the history of the independent Sirdars, or Missuls, and the life of the great founder of the Sikh monarchy, Maharajah Runjeet Singh by William Lewis M’Gregor MD Surgeon 1st European Light Infantry 1846 Google Books Volume 1; Volume 2 contains details of the battles.
• Obituary of Surgeon Major Allan Webb, died 15 September 1863 age 55 who entered the Bengal Medical Service in 1835. A second obituary. For many years from 1842, in addition to his other positions, he was surgeon to the Lower Orphan School, Calcutta probably until his retirement, or close to it.
• Abstract of an article about Frederic John Mouat Bengal Surgeon, a leading figure in the field of education and prison reform, ca 1840-1870
• George Edward Aldred was appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the Madras Medical Service on the 20th of April 1847.This link from The Asplin Military History Resources shows the appointment procedures. He was Court Martialled in July 1848 and dismissed, as this link from Allen’s Indian Mail 1848 shows, but subsequently reinstated.
• Autobiography of an Indian Army Surgeon: Or, Leaves Turned Down from a Journal by Wilmington Walford M.D. published 1854 Google Books.
• Page 12 of this pdf link gives details of Francis Day who joined the Madras Medical Service in 1852. He wrote a 1863 book on Cochin Google Books. He became the most important writer on Indian fishes, his first book on fish being Fishes of Malabar 1865. Archive.org Wikipedia
• Obituary of Assistant-Surgeon W. J. Thomson, Civil Surgeon of Gurgaon (near Delhi),who died 1863.He had “an early death” and appears to have joined the Bengal Medical Service after 1858.
• Dr. William Brooke O'Shaughnessy (1809-1889) -modern treatment for cholera, introduced cannabis to Western medicine, laid first telegraph system in Asia.
  Memoir of Surgeon-Major Sir W. O'Shaughnessy Brooke ... in connection with the early history of the telegraph in India by M Adams 1889 Archive.org
• “War in Burma-the Award of the Victoria Cross to Ferdinand Simeon Le Quesne" (pdf) by PH Starling from Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps March 2009.The award was for action in Burma 4 May 1889 when he was a Surgeon Captain with the 2nd Norfolk Regiment. He would have been part of the Royal Army Medical Corps at this time, not the Indian Medical Service. He had later (broken) service in Burma and India until 1909.
• Field Force to Lhasa 1903-1904. Fifty letters home by Captain Cecil Mainprise of the Royal Army Medical Corps who took part in the Tibet Expedition. His obituary in the British Medical Journal 3 March 1951 indicates he had further service in India, including the 3rd Afghan War of 1919.
• Laura and Charles Hope were Baptist medical missionaries from Australia, for most of the period 1893 to 1934 Australian DIctionary of Biography.