Organisation

Since 1806 the medical officers of the Royal Navy had been under the direction of the Transport Board (with which the ancient Sick and Hurt Board, established in the time of Henry VIII, was combined in that year). In 1817 the Transport Board was combined with the Navy Board, and responsibility for medical officers passed to the Victualling Board. In 1832 the two remaining boards (the Navy Board and the Victualling Board) were abolished by the new First Lord, Sir James Graham. A Physician of the Navy, reporting to one of the Lords of the expanded Board of Admiralty, was placed in charge of the medical department; the title of this officer was soon changed to Physician-General of the Navy, then to Inspector-General of Naval Hospitals and Fleets, and finally to Director-General of the Medical Department of the Navy. In 1879 the offices of the Director-General were located at 9 New Street, Spring Gardens (Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879).

Organisation Medical officers' ranks Comparative ranks Numbers of medical officers

Medical officers' ranks

At the end of the Napoleonic wars the medical personnel of the Royal Navy were ranked as Physicians, Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons (the erstwhile Surgeon's mates). The small number of Physicians were senior medical officers, in charge of a naval hospital, or possibly a flagship. The shipboard (Assistant) Surgeons had to combine all three branches of medicine: physician (diagnostician, and prescriber of medicines), apothecary (preparer and dispenser of medicines), and surgeon (performer of surgical operations).

[Note: different sources give differing dates for several of the changes in designation shown here; these are the dates the various designations were used in the Navy List].

In 1855 senior Surgeons were designated Staff Surgeons (a title later extended to all Surgeons of more than 20 years service), and in 1873 - in a burst of rank inflation - Assistant Surgeons were redesignated Surgeons, and Surgeons were redesignated Staff Surgeons, 2nd class. Two years later the Staff Surgeons, 1st class became Fleet Surgeons, and the Staff Surgeons, 2nd class lost their class appellation.

After the first World War, the ranks of the medical officers - in common with those of the other civilian branches of the Royal Navy - were brought into line with those of the executive branch; the Medical Director-General was ranked as Surgeon Vice Admiral, and in 2002 re-styled once more to Medical Director General (Naval).

Organisation Medical officers' ranks Comparative ranks Numbers of medical officers

Comparative ranks

The following table illustrates the slow progress made by the medical officers of the Royal Navy in reaching equality of rank with their colleagues in the executive branch.

An Order in Council of 13 May 1859 formalised the following equivalent ranks for Navy and Army medical officers:

Organisation Medical officers' ranks Comparative ranks Numbers of medical officers

Numbers of medical officers