Introduction

Carl Von Clausewitz in his On War emphasizes the centrality of battles and campaigns in the military sphere by arguing that the two are like gold and silver in commercial transactions. But, without the varied types of logistical duties carried out by a host of non-combat personnel, combat is just not possible. No army could move and fight without the aid of non-combatants. Even foreign occupying armies (those of the Ghorids, Ghaznavids and later the British) had to depend on the indigenous manpower for supply, transport and manufacture of weapons. About the ancient and medieval periods, our data is very scarce. However, the British kept detailed notes about the various types of non-combatants recruited by the Army in India. For the postcolonial period, the government publishes selected data. However, before I consider this period, it would be helpful to consider the scenario during the dawn of civilization.

Ancient Period

Between the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization (1200 bc) and the Later Vedic Age (300 bc), chariots were the principal strike force of the Indian armies. Specialized carpenters known as rathakaras (makers of rathas/chariots) were in charge of manufacturing and repairing the chariots. Another type of specialized artisan associated with manufacture of chariots was the rbhus. These artisans were praised for manufacturing scythe chariots. During the fourth and third centuries bc, a combined arm unit of the ancient Chinese army composed of a chariot, three chariot crews, seventy-two infantry accompanied by a baggage wagon and twenty-five grooms, cooks and servants.

A Victorian traveller in the settled part of the British Empire at any time between the 1850s and the 1890s would have encountered much that was exotic and novel. On the other hand, there would be much that would be familiar from churches to clubs, and from railways to parks. One of a number of familiar institutions would be the high visibility of forces of citizen soldiers from Australia's Pinjarrah Mounted Volunteers, to Burma's Moulmein Volunteer Reserve Company, Canada's Victoria Rifles, India's Cossipore Artillery Volunteers, New Zealand's Coromandel Rifle Brigade and South Africa's Lang Kloof Cavalry. Victorians who stayed at home were equally familiar with colonial citizen soldiers, contingents or representatives taking part in the Queen's Jubilee procession on 22 June 1897 including the Canadian Highlanders, the South Australia Mounted Rifles, the Natal Carbineers, the Umvoti Mounted Rifles, the Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers, the Otago Hussars, the Rhodesia Horse and the Royal Malta Regiment of Militia.

Such units fall clearly within the typology of colonial forces advanced by Karl Hack and Tobias Rettig, who have classified them as ‘a special case’ in being comprised of males who were locally born or resident but not indigenous. As Craig Wilcox has noted, within the empire, these citizen units ‘advertised a community's significance, maturity and cohesion’ and, compared with other local colonial organizations such as cricket clubs or fire brigades, ‘required as much or more initiative and commitment to create and maintain it’. But the citizen soldiers of the empire were neither simply another form of colonial unit, nor solely an expression of settler community. They also represented Britain's own long tradition of raising amateur citizen soldiers – militia, yeomanry and volunteers – for home defence, which is precisely why they would have been so familiar to an itinerant Victorian. By the end of the Queen's reign, there were not only over 360,000 citizen soldiers in Britain but also well over 100,000 more throughout the empire.

It was a model of citizen soldiers that had been widely emulated in British colonies and settlements in the Caribbean, North America and India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The following two chapters consider the Peninsular War and demonstrate how and why army medicine and army medical officers became increasingly militarized. In particular, the implications for the development of army medicine resulting from the appointment of the new AMB are discussed. By examining the relative success and failure of the most senior military medical officers, the chapters highlight how important it had become for medical officers to adapt their practice to accommodate not only the practicalities of campaigning, but also the values of army culture.

The Peninsular War, a series of campaigns over six years from 1808 to 1814, was precipitated by Napoleon's movement of 100,000 troops into Spain with the intention of invading Portugal. The ensuing Spanish rebellion and Portuguese resistance provided the British government with the necessary allies and motivation to mount a campaign on the Continent, and an expeditionary force of 13,000 men under Sir Arthur Wellesley set sail for Portugal in July 1808. Following reports of a larger French presence in Portugal, the British force was increased to 40,000 men, and the command given to Sir Hew Dalrymple, with Sir Henry Burrard as his deputy. Those gentlemen arrived in Portugal after Wellesley's victories at Roliça and Vimeiro, just in time to prevent an advance and secure the much-regretted Convention of Cintra that allowed the French to evacuate Portugal.