Hello Cathy
Many thanks for the information, I will have a good trawl through the uniform books this weekend. Just a quick question, did your G Grandfather ever serve in any other regiment to your knowledge, possible milita? before the A H Corps. The uniform you posted shows a lance Corporal stripe on the right shoulder and what looks like 2 crossed muskets/ rifles on his left lower sleeve.
Dave.....
PS.......additional information
The Army Hospital Corps was raised by Royal Warrant on 1 August 1857 to provide orderlies for military hospitals, except those in India. It replaced the Medical Staff Corps, which had been embodied on 22 June 1855. In December 1859, the name Medical Staff Corps ceased to appear in the returns of the distribution of the army and was substituted with the name Army Hospital Corps.
The first transfers from the Medical Staff Corps to the Army Hospital Corps took place on 31 October 1859, when No 4 MSC William Stawtree and No 461 MSC Benjamin Rawlins became No 1 AHC and No 2 AHC respectively with the rank of Sergeant Major. On 30 November 1859, No 2 MSC Blake John became No 275 in the AHC with the rank of Sergeant Major. Captain and Brevet Major Stonehouse George Bunbury MSC, who on 22 June 1855 had been placed in charge of the Medical Staff Corps, became a Captain in the new Army Hospital Corps on 3 February 1860.
The men of the AHC had been initially recruited from soldiers in infantry regiments. This was in accordance with the Royal Warrant of 22 February 1875, which specified that the ranks of the Corps will be filled by Non-commissioned officers or soldiers volunteering from the ranks of the army, or by recruits whose enlistment for General Service may be authorised by the Secretary of State, with a view to their undergoing a course of probation at the Royal Victoria Hospital Netley, (later replaced by the Depôt and Training School Aldershot), preparatory to their being transferred to the Army hospital Corps, if deemed eligible for service therein.
Men generally joined the Army Hospital Corps after two to three years' military service and had to undergo a probationary period of six months before being accepted into the corps. They enlisted for twelve years under the Army Enlistment Act of 1870, of which six years were with the Colours and six years with the Reserve. However, while soldiers in India served for the full six years with the Colours, those in Britain could pass into the reserves after three years. From 1878, the AHC fell under the Cardwell Short Service System, and recruits now served for 3 years with the Colours and 9 years with the Reserve. After 1877, the number of soldiers transferring from the infantry declined, as from 1875 the AHC enlisted men directly from civil life and trained them in both military and hospital duties.
