Army Medical Services

{{Infobox military unit

| unit_name = Army Medical Services

| image = Cap Badges of the four medical nursing corps of the Army Medical Services.png

| image_size = 250px

| caption = Cap badges of the four former constituent corps

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| country = {{flagicon|UK}} United Kingdom

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| branch = 23px British Army

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| role = Medical

| size = 2 Corps

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| garrison = Camberley

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| commander1 = Major General Timothy Hodgetts

| commander1_label = Master-General

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The Army Medical Services (AMS) is the organisation responsible for administering the corps that deliver medical, veterinary, dental and nursing services in the British Army. It is headquartered at the former Staff College, Camberley, near the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.{{cite web |url=https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/army-medical-services/ |title=Army Medical Services |publisher=British Army |access-date=17 April 2019}}

On 15 November 2024, with the exception of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the constituent corps of the AMS amalgamated to form a new Corps, the Royal Army Medical Service. The AMS long predates any of the four constituent Corps, with the term dating back at least to the Napoleonic Wars,{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1136/jramc-127-01-01 | doi=10.1136/jramc-127-01-01 | title=Biographical Summary: Director General Army Medical Services | date=1981 | last1=Reay | first1=H A J. | journal=Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps | volume=127 | issue=1 | pages=4–5 | pmid=7014854 }} and the new Corps will take the precedence formerly held by the RAMC in the British Army’s order of battle. https://www.army.mod.uk/news/the-royal-army-medical-service-created-to-ensure-british-army-healthcare-is-fit-for-the-future/

Role

AMS is responsible for administering the corps that deliver medical, veterinary, dental and nursing services in the British Army. These are:{{cite web|url=http://www.armedforces.co.uk/army/listings/l0077.html|title=Combat Service Support|publisher=Armed Forces|access-date=9 May 2014}}

AMS contributes to the conservation of fighting strength and morale of the Army and advises commanders on matters of health and disease.{{cite web|url=https://www.army.mod.uk/medical-services/29926.aspx|title=202 Field Hospital|access-date=9 May 2014}}

The Defence Medical Services, by contrast, is an umbrella adjectival term, and should not been seen as equivalent to a command or an Army Corps as constituted under the Armed Forces Act 2006.{{cite web | url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_Medical_Services | title=Defence Medical Services }}{{Circular reference|date=February 2025}} https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/52/contents

Administration and leadership

The Army Medical Services are administered by Headquarters Army Medical Directorate at Andover, previously under the leadership of the Director General Army Medical Services (DGAMS[https://daysackmedia.co.uk/resources/uk-military-acronyms/complete-list/?search=DGAMS#results Military Acronym Tool]), formerly Major General Jeremy Rowan.

The Director General answered to the Adjutant-General, and his role was to promote effective medical, dental and veterinary health services for the Army and provide a policy focus for individual medical training, doctrine and force development. The post was disestablished after 2016.{{cite web |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/678403/2018-00387.pdf |title=Information on the de-establishment of Director Army Medical Services |date=25 January 2018 |website=British Ministry of Defence |publisher=UK MOD |access-date=9 April 2019}}

A Freedom of Information request identified that from 2018, "day to day responsibility for medical policy and capability development" would "lie at Brigadier level," but did not indicate the title of that particular post. As of March 2019, a Brigadier is employed within the senior Army ranks as Senior Health Advisor, who "Monitors and assesses the health of the Army to assist Director Personnel in the provision of Health Policy, provides policy oversight and assurance for Commander Field Army in the generation and delivery of medical operational capability, and is directly responsible for the provision of primary care services to the Army and community mental health services to Defence."[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/872147/Army_Mar_19_senior_data.csv/preview Transparency Data, Army Command Senior, March 2019.]

=List of directors general=

Surgeon-General Sir William Alexander Mackinnon (1889–1896)[http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH13889&type=P&o=2&start=100&max=20&l=s Sir William Alexander Mackinnon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711182411/https://universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH13889&type=P&o=2&start=100&max=20&l=s |date=11 July 2021 }}. University of Glasgow
Surgeon-General Sir William TaylorHart´s army list, 1903
Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Keogh (1905–1910){{cite ODNB|last=Harrison|first=Mark|title=Keogh, Sir Alfred (1857–1936)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34296|access-date=2 February 2014|date=October 2008|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/34296}}
Lieutenant-General Sir William Launcelotte Gubbins (1910–?){{cite journal|title=Reflections|journal=British Journal of Nursing|date=19 March 1910|volume=44|page=236|url=http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/data/VOLUME044-1910/page236-volume44-19thmarch1910.pdf|access-date=7 February 2014}}
Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Sloggett (1914){{London Gazette |issue=28836 |date=2 June 1914 |page=4382 }}
Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Keogh (1914–1918); second term
Lieutenant-General Sir John Goodwin (1918–1923)Paul D. Wilson, [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090048b.htm Goodwin, Sir Thomas Herbert John Chapman (1871–1960)], Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp 49–50.
Lieutenant-General Sir William Boog Leishman (1923–1926){{cite journal |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B |volume=102 |issue=720 |date=2 April 1928 |publisher=The Royal Society |pages=i–xxvii |jstor=81250 |title=Obituary Notices of Fellows Deceased-William Boog Leishman |doi=10.1098/rspb.1928.0019|doi-access=free }}
Lieutenant General Sir William MacArthur (1938–1941){{cite web|title=MACARTHUR, Sir William Porter (1884–1964), Lieutenant General|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/MACARTHUR.shtml|work=Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives|publisher=King's College Londo|access-date=8 February 2014}}
Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Hood (August 1941–1948){{cite ODNB|last=Bennett|first=John D.C.|title=Hood, Sir Alexander (1888–1980)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/57375|access-date=19 October 2015|date=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/57375}}
Lieutenant-General Neil Cantlie (1948-1952)
Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Harris (1952-1956)
Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Drummond (1956-1961)
Lieutenant-General Sir Harold Knott (1961-1965)
Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Drew (1965-26 Jul 1969)
Lieutenant General Sir Norman Talbot (26 Jul 1969–1973){{London Gazette |issue=44822 |date=3 April 1969 |page=3687 |supp=y }}
Lieutenant-General Sir James Baird (1973–1977){{cite web|title=Obituary – Lt Gen Sir James Baird KBE|url=http://www.dulwichsociety.com/newsletters/37-autumn-2007/313-sir-james-baird|publisher=The Dulwich Society|access-date=2 February 2014|date=11 August 2008}}
Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Bradshaw (1977–1981){{cite news|title=Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Bradshaw; Memorial service|newspaper=The Times|date=17 November 1999|page=24}}
Lieutenant General Sir Alan Reay (1981–1984)
Lieutenant General Sir Cameron Moffat (1984–1988) First Surgeon General Defence Medical Services
Major General Anthony Shaw (1988–1990){{cite web|title=SHAW, Maj.-Gen. Anthony John|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U34517|work=Who's Who 2013|publisher=A & C Black|access-date=25 December 2012|date=November 2012}}
Major General (later Lieutenant General) Sir Peter Beale (1990–1993){{cite web|title=BEALE, Lt-Gen. Sir Peter (John)|work=Who's Who 2012|publisher=A & C Black|date=December 2011}}
Major General Brian Mayes (1993–1996)
Major General Robin Short (1996–1999){{cite web|title=Major General Robin Short|url=http://www.lstat.com/Staff_Advisors/bios/Robin_Short.html|work=Biographies|publisher=Integrated Medical Systems|access-date=5 May 2014}}
Major General (later Lieutenant General) Robert Menzies (1999–2000)
Major General David Jolliffe (2000–2003){{London Gazette |issue=55756 |date=8 February 2000 |page=1334 |supp=y }}
Major General (later Lieutenant General) Louis Lillywhite (2003–2004)
Major General Alan Hawley (2005–2009)
Major General Michael von Bertele (2009–2012){{cite web|title=von BERTELE, Maj. Gen. Michael James|work=Who's Who 2012|publisher=A & C Black|date=December 2011}}
Major General Ewan Carmichael (2012–2014){{London Gazette |issue=60255 |date=4 September 2012 |page=16942 |supp=y }}
Major General Jeremy Rowan (2014–2016)

==Master-Generals==

Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite (2017–2022){{London Gazette|issue=61853|supp=y|page=3746 |date=21 February 2017}}
Major General Timothy Hodgetts (2022–present){{London Gazette|issue=63576|supp=y|page=23984|date=4 January 2022}}