Army Medical Services
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox military unit Template:British Army Arms 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.<ref name=army-ams>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and the new Corps will take the precedence formerly held by the RAMC in the British Army’s order of battle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Role
AMS is responsible for administering the corps that deliver medical, veterinary, dental and nursing services in the British Army. These are:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
AMS contributes to the conservation of fighting strength and morale of the Army and advises commanders on matters of health and disease.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Circular reference<ref>https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/52/contents Template:Bare URL inline</ref>
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<ref>Military Acronym Tool</ref>), 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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."<ref>Transparency Data, Army Command Senior, March 2019.</ref>
List of directors general
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- Surgeon-General Sir William Alexander Mackinnon (1889–1896)<ref name=r1>Sir William Alexander Mackinnon Template:Webarchive. University of Glasgow</ref>
- Surgeon-General Sir William Taylor<ref>Hart´s army list, 1903</ref>
- Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Keogh (1905–1910)<ref name="Keogh">Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
- Lieutenant-General Sir William Launcelotte Gubbins (1910–?)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Sloggett (1914)<ref name="LG 2 June 1914">Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Keogh (1914–1918);<ref name="Keogh"/> second term
- Lieutenant-General Sir John Goodwin (1918–1923)<ref name="adb">Paul D. Wilson, Goodwin, Sir Thomas Herbert John Chapman (1871–1960), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp 49–50.</ref>
- Lieutenant-General Sir William Boog Leishman (1923–1926)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Lieutenant General Sir William MacArthur (1938–1941)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Hood (August 1941 – 1948)<ref name="Hood ODNB">Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
- 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)<ref name="LG 3 April 1969">Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Lieutenant-General Sir James Baird (1973–1977)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Bradshaw (1977–1981)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 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)<ref name="Who's Who 2013">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Major General (later Lieutenant General) Sir Peter Beale (1990–1993)<ref name="Who's Who">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Major General Brian Mayes (1993–1996)<ref name="Who's Who" />
- Major General Robin Short (1996–1999)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Major General (later Lieutenant General) Robert Menzies (1999–2000)
- Major General David Jolliffe (2000–2003)<ref name="LG 8 February 2000">Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Major General (later Lieutenant General) Louis Lillywhite (2003–2004)
- Major General Alan Hawley (2005–2009)
- Major General Michael von Bertele (2009–2012)<ref name="Who's Who 2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Major General Ewan Carmichael (2012–2014)<ref name="LG 4 September 2012">Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Major General Jeremy Rowan (2014–2016)
Master-Generals
- Lieutenant General Louis Lillywhite (2017–2022)<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
- Major General Timothy Hodgetts (2022–present)<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>