The Royal Army Medical Corps
And the Malta Garrison
1938

Soldiers were entitled to free treatment in accordance with Army Regs. para 63 of 1938. However, those admitted to hospital with a condition for which they were to blame were charged 1s 6d a day or 9d in the case of boys. Those certified by a medical officer to have an illness that was the result of an offense under the Army Act were charged similar rates.

Local troops such as the Royal Malta Artillery or the King's Own Malta Regiment were also charged 10 1/2d and boys 8d if they were judged responsible for their illness.

Soldiers' wives accepted into Military Families' Hospitals, if on the married establishment and admitted on account of illness, paid nothing. However, if admitted for confinement, they were charged a shilling a day to a maximum of a pound. They were charged for confinement because pregnant women received treatment at a cost to the state at a time when they were receiving full maternity allowances.

Wives of soldiers not on the married establishment were charged a shilling a day for ordinary illness. If admitted for confinement they were charged a shilling a day subject to a maximum of a pound.

Officers paid different rates. They were not charged for their first day of in-patient treatment. Officers on full pay were charged 2s 6d a day, but were exempt if their incapacity was caused by service in the field. Officers on half-pay were charged three different daily rates:

• Those admitted on account of wounds or illness contracted in the field paid the sum fixed as the higher rate of ration allowance without the meat element.
• Those admitted on account of wounds or illness not contracted in the field but due to military service paid 2s 6d in addition to the above rate of ration allowance.
• The charge for an officer admitted to a military hospital when he was not normally eligible for treatment from military sources, was 12 shillings a day.
• Non-entitled officers admitted to the Queen Alexandra Hospital Millbank paid a special charge of 23 shillings a day.

Members of the QAIMNS were treated free. No charge was made for children of soldiers on the married establishment. Children not on the married establishment were charged a shilling a day. They were only treated free if they had an infectious disease so as to safeguard the troops from infection.

73591 Lt Alfred Anthony Paul Aloysius Ferro MD was born on 14 June 1914. He graduated MD from the University of Malta in 1937. On 23 Oct 1937, he applied for a Short Service Commission in the RAMC. He entered the RAM College Millbank on 1 Nov 1937 and joined the RAMC Depôt on 1 Jan 1938. On 14 March 1938, he was seconded as a casualty officer to the L.C.C. Hospital, Harrow Road Paddington W9, under the provisions of Art. 213, Royal Warrant for Pay and Promotion, 1931. He returned to the army establishment on 14 Sep 1938 and joined R.H. Hospital. He was promoted Captain on 27 April 1939 with seniority from 27 October 1938.

Captain A A P A Ferro died of wounds received in action on 19 March 1941 while attached to 1 Field Regt Royal Artillery (Casualty List 471 of 25 March 1941). He was buried at Keren War Cemetery Eritrea. Keren was the last Italian stronghold in Eritrea and the scene of a decisive battle of the war in East Africa in Feb and March 1941.

Pasteurization of goat's milk became law in 1938. The military had replaced fresh milk with tinned milk in 1906.

On 11 Nov 1938, the Governor, Sir Charles Bonham-Carter unveiled the War Memorial at Floriana.