;If I had thousands of Victoria Crosses;: Stretcher Bearer Training in the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the First World War

In the First World War, the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) went from a small force of twenty Permanent Force officers to staffing a professional and exceptionally dedicated Medical Corps.Canadian doctors, nurses, orderlies, dentists, optometrists, ambulance drivers, x-ray technicians, and others are lauded for their achievements during one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.Yet very little is written about the stretcher bearer, often the first man to come upon a wounded soldier in the field.These bearers could be the difference between life and death for the fighting force.This thesis examines how bearers were trained and how their training evolved as the war went on.It argues that these men were instrumental in saving lives at first contact with the wounded, and that, as the war went on, their training expanded to better lifesaving techniques.iii Table of Contents iv List of Photographs vAbbreviations viii even if they were a distinct territorial force.This means that the medical arm of the CEF used British training material and only during the war did they, as other territorial forces did, develop their own style and techniques for treatment of patients by trial and error.3 This is also true when it comes to the CEF's organization.4 By examining training material, soldier's diaries, available academic and archival material, this thesis will focus on two main subjects.The first will be pre-war training undertaken by stretcher bearers, which will be examined by looking at training material, diaries, and archival sources.In the first chapter, I consult surviving training manuals that imparted medical knowledge and contain drill exercises that were used to ready these unarmed soldiers to undertake their important role.The second chapter will delve into battle lessons.This will be done by looking at the survival rate of soldiers turned patients, triage and first steps taken by the stretcher bearers when finding a wounded comrade, and medical developments that were then implemented and taught to stretcher bearers by medical officers.Both chapters will incorporate first-hand accounts from stretcher bearers themselves, as well as their patients and the Medical Officers who taught the stretcher bearers their lifesaving techniques.The main subject is the Canadian stretcher-bearer but because of availability of material, it will be supplemented by information on British and other Dominion forces.The goals of this thesis are three fold.The first is to review the selection process of stretcher bearers and their pre-war training; the second goal is to show that, as the war dragged on, the training received by bearers evolved and 3 L. Bruce Robertson, "Further Observations on the Results of Blood Transfusion in War Surgery,"

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