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Ancestors in British India often followed the professions of '''Apothecary''' or (changed in 1894 to '''Assistant Surgeon''' ) and it is hoped that this article will help you to track yours down and learn more about how they lived and worked.
==Overview==
====Crawford’s Roll of the Indian Medical Service====
A further frequently asked question is why an Assistant Surgeon ancestor does not appear in ''Crawford’s Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1614-1930''. Apothecaries as members of the Indian Subordinate Medical Department, rather than the superior Indian Medical Service, generally are not listed in Crawford, except for some reason, those in the [[Madras Presidency]]. It should be noted that IMS used the title Assistant Surgeon for its lower ranks until 1873 and that the ISMD used the same title after 1894. Therefore if your Assistant Surgeon appears with that title before 1873, he should be in the IMSand will not be an Apothecary.
Medical personnel appointed to the IMS will almost always have been educated in the UK, even if they were born in India. They always held higher medical ranking. [http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/21858/pages/976 This London Gazette article] sets out the requirements for Assistant-Surgeons in the service of the East India Company in March 1856.
The background of the boys from the Lower Orphan School was approximately 25% European and 75% Eurasian (or East Indian or from 1911 [[Anglo Indian]]), with a European soldier father and Indian mother. The percentage of Eurasians in the Upper Orphan School was higher, as orphans with European parents were returned to England, provided they had family there who could care for them.
Subordinate Medical Departments were also established in [[Madras (Presidency)|Madras]] in 1812, and a little later in [[Bombay (Presidency)|Bombay]]. Medical College training for Hospital Apprentices was introduced in 1847 in Bengal following the system that had previously been successfully introduced in Madras.
General Order 200 dated 15 June 1847 is about Apprenticeships in the Bengal Subordinate Medical Department. It sets out that candidates would sit an examination to become an apprentice. Those successful would serve for two years as an apprentice in the Hospital of a European Regiment or General Hospital. They then may be selected by the Medical Board for a studentship in the Medical College. They would then attend a two year course of study comprising Anatomy, Dissection, Materia Medica, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the practice of Medicine and Surgery and more especially clinical instruction in connection with the last two branches. At the end of the two years they were to undergo an examination. If successful they were to be drafted to European Regiments or to the General Hospital, there to wait their turn for promotion as Assistant Apothecaries or Assistant Stewards. Promotion to Apothecary was also to be by examination.
Pages 235 to 246 ''Report of the Board of Education, Bombay'' January 1,1850 to April 30, 1851 (Published 1851). [http://books.google.com/books?id=38AIAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA235 Full article]
It is interesting to note that from 1869 until the founding of the King Edward VII College of Medicine in [[Singapore]], apprentice Apothecaries were also recruited from schools in that region and trained in the Madras Medical College. Full details are given in [http://www.annals.edu.sg/pdf/34VolNo6200506/V34N6p4C.pdf The Founding of the Medical School in Singapore] in 1905 ] by YK Lee.
===Promotion===
|Citation: For having behaved with great coolness and courage at the capture of the North Taku Fort [near Tientsin, China], on the 21st of August, 1860. On the morning of that day he accompanied a wing of the 67th Regiment, when it took up a position within 500 yards of the Fort. Having quitted cover, he proceeded, under a very heavy fire, to attend to a Dhoolie-bearer, whose wound he had been directed to bind up; and, while the Regiment was advancing under the Enemy's fire, he ran across the open to attend to another wounded man, in doing which he was himself severely wounded.
|-
|The [http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/ Wellcome Library ] (London) has some documents, including his baptism in 1845 at [[Almorah]] (NW India) under the name Andrew Fitzgibbon.
|}
::- 1st Troop Horse Artillery. Assistant Apothecary W. Conway, wounded dangerously, ball through head
*'''Murder of Apothecary Healy''' (sometimes spelt Healey) by tribesmen, while travelling to his unit (1850). See [http://books.google.com/books?id=axgYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA281 ''Allen's Indian Mail'' page 281], also [http://books.google.com/books?id=axgYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA313 313p313], [http://books.google.com/books?id=axgYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA351 351p351] and [http://books.google.com/books?id=vRoCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA394 394''Medical Times'', Jan-June 1850 p394].
*'''Apothecary Daly''' (1821) and '''Assistant Apothecary Everard''' (1824) charged with being drunk while treating patients, from a book about [http://books.google.com/books?id=FukGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA597 Law in India, published 1825 (page 597)]. The Daly court martial is also mentioned in [http://books.google.com/books?id=9SYYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA479 this link (page 497)].
==Listings of Apothecaries==
Some Directories contain lists of Apothecaries and Stewards, Assistant Apothecaries and Assistant Stewards, which contain details as to when they obtained their grading and where they were currently serving. The list, in a section headed Subordinate Medical Department is usually found at the end of the Military List, following a Medical Department List. Occasionally the apothecaries are found in lists where the heading is Warrant Officers. In a few volumes Hospital Apprentices are also included, or Passed Medical Apprentices in Madras. Even if there is no specific list, the apothecary’s name may appear in the ''Alphabetical List of Residents'', particularly for the [[Mofussil]].
Preceding the Apothecaries listings there are listings of the Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons in the Medical Department which will be of relevance if your ancestor was an Assistant Surgeon up until 1873.
Currently (May 2009) there are only six known lists online:
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=O94NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA240 PA245 1838 ''Bengal Directory''], page 240 245
''Madras Quarterly Journal Of Medical Science'' (search within these volumes for ”warrant officers” or more generally for “medical warrant officers”):
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=ahe1AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PR17 Madras at 1 October 1860] (Page 17 of appendix at end of book)
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=0he1AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PR17 Madras at 1 April 1861] (Page 17 of appendix)
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=ahi1AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PR17 Madras at 1 October 1861] (Page 17 of appendix)
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=Dhm1AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PR16 Madras at 1 April 1862] (page 16 of appendix)
