When the Crimea War broke out in 1854 there was no medical corps in the British Army. The creation f such a corps had been vainly recommended for some years, but the needs of the Crimea War finally brought home the importance of the subject. The story of Florence Nightingale is well known and this reforming lady further highlighted the plight of the wounded and the sheer magnitude of the medical breakdown. So at last there were to be non-commissioned men whose interests in military life were bound up with the medical service. A Royal Warrant of 1855 announced the creation of a Medical Staff Corps, primarily for service at home and abroad during the war. The medical Staff Corps was composed of regimental NCO's who were unfit for service in the field or recently discharged and some direct recruits.
The Corps was intended for hospital service and its members had no military titles and wore no badges of rank. They were referred to by the name of their office - steward, cook, orderly etc. Just one regimental officer was appointed to command the depot at Chatham and to serve as both adjutant and quartermaster, and to manage the rest of the corps from a distance. It may be imagined that this officer was kept very busy indeed. While it was the first medical corps, this Medical Staff Corps was not a success, and disappeared after a couple of years. It had been recruited largely from men of little education, who, with no officers of their own, received no military training, so on the proclamation of peace the decision was taken to form a better corps
In 1857 a Royal Commission recommended the Medical Staff Corps should be replaced by the Army Hospital Corps and this took place in August of that year
The Army Hospital Corps lasted until 1884 when it reverted to its previous name under sweeping new changes
In 1848 medical officers of regiments were treated entirely as regimental officers and Medical Staff officers as part of army staff. It was 1869 before the Director General was attached to the military department of the War Office. A Royal Warrant of 1873 established the Army Medical Department, which was just for officers. Regimental medical officers came under this new department
August 1st 1884 is an important date in RAMC history as a Royal Warrant ordained that medical officers and quartermasters should become Medical Staff and the Army Hospital Corps revert to its previous title of Medical Staff Corps and be commanded by Medical Staff.
In 1898 a Royal Warrant united both these corps into one Royal Army Medical Corps.
Our quartermaster was entitled to wear the uniform of an officer with whom his honorary rank corresponded with the following exceptions:
One bar of lace only to be worn on the cuffs of the tunic.
The pouch to be of patent leather to hold writing materials and to have the Royal Cypher, in gilt, on the flap
Two stripes of gold embroidery only, on the outer edges of the pouch belt