Medical support to Armies is as old as those Armies themselves but it seems sensible to start off the story of the evolution of the RAMC at the Restoration of Charles II and the establishment of Britain’s Standing Army. That wasn’t a blank canvas, of course, but it is a useful start line in that there was to be a clear stable organisation thereafter to give support to, it was about the time that wider medical science and medical careers started to develop, and the great expansion of the Army to build and sustain the Empire commenced. Running alongside all this is the relationship of medical with the chain of command, which is important on two grounds, non-combatant medical status on the one hand against advice to commanders who were, and still are, the determinants of the occupation, lifestyle and environment influences on the health of the Army on the other.

The timeline shows the progress of professional development, organisation and relationships, via 60 key occurences since the Restoration, which culminated in the formation of the RAMC in 1898 but, of course, has continued to evolve to the present day. It is the story of how, in a series of steps, the officers and soldiers of the RAMC have come together over the last 360 years. It tracks the relationship between Regular and Auxiliary Forces. Whether this has meant that we have progressed and advanced every 6 years over the era, one leaves the reader to make his or her own mind up as they scroll through the chronology.