Apothercary 2016

consulting surgeon, became an expert on gunshot
injuries. He was commissioned Major in the RAMC
Territorial Force (TF) on its formation in 1908. In
September 1914, he left for France as consulting surgeon
to the BEF and supervised newly established hospital
centres at Camiers and Etaples, He retired in March
1918 with the rank of Major-General, AMS. Sir William
Arbuthnot Lane, Bt. (Liveryman), who had also joined
the RAMC (TF) in 1908, held the rank of Captain at the
2 nd London General Hospital at the outbreak of the war
and was gazetted Colonel, AMS in September 1917. He
worked with the French Red Cross, served as consulting
surgeon to the Aldershot Command and acted as
supervisor of Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup, which
pioneered the treatment of facial injuries. He was made
CB and was a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur.
A number of members who served in the Great War
had begun their military careers in the Medical
Department of the Army before the RAMC had been
formed in 1898. Charles Thomas Samman (Liveryman,
Master 1928-31), Lieutenant-Colonel, RAMC had been
commissioned Surgeon Lieutenant in the Army Medical
Department in 1893. He served in France with the 10 th
General Hospital and the 2/2nd London Field
Ambulance. Ernest Carrick Freeman (Liveryman, Master
1931-32) had joined the Army Medical Department in
1887 and served in the South African War. In the Great
War, he was Colonel, RAMC and ADMS, 54 th (East
Anglian) Division (TF), which deployed to Gallipoli in
July 1915 and later to Egypt. He was Mentioned in
Dispatches and created CMG for his work. Robert
James Blackham (Yeoman 1917) had joined the Army
Medical Staff in 1895. He served in France from 1915 as
ADMS, 23 rd Division and was promoted Colonel,
RAMC. Also serving in Belgium, Italy and Russia, he
was made Deputy Director, Medical Services, 11 th
Corps. Mentioned in Dispatches five times, he received
the DSO, CMG, CB, French Croix de Guerre, and made
a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur.
The majority of members commissioned in the
RAMC after the start of the war served abroad on many
fronts. John Oglethorpe Wakelin Barratt (Liveryman,
Master 1933-34), Captain, RAMC (TF) served as
Commanding Officer (CO), 71 st Sanitary Section, 1 st
London (City of London) Sanitary Company. The
Section deployed to Egypt in December 1915 as part of
the 31 st Division. He later served as MO to a variety of
general, base and veterinary hospitals in France and
Italy. Thomas Bramley Layton (Yeoman, Master 1940-
41), Major (acting Lieutenant-Colonel), RAMC (T) had
been mobilised at the outbreak of the war. He served as
CO, 2/4 London Field Ambulance in France from June
1916 and later in Salonika, Palestine and Egypt. In 1918,
he was twice Mentioned in Dispatches and awarded the
DSO for distinguished service in connection with
military operations in Egypt.
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