Grandfather helped save trapped soldiers
The Gurkhas, The Royal Engineers, the Royal West Kents – Maidstone has a long and celebrated military history.
But there is one branch of the Armed Services that was hugely significant to the town that sometimes gets overlooked: the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).
Although regiments have had their own medical officers and orderlies since at least 1812, it was not until after the public became aware of the serious shortfall in medical provision for our troops during the Crimean War (1853-1856) that a first attempt to establish a medical branch of the services, initially known as The Medical Staff Corps, was formed.
In 1898, this was transformed to include all ranks in what Queen Victoria named the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Since then, the doctors and orderlies have accompanied the fighting troops into every major conflict from the Boer War, through the First and Second World Wars, to Korea, Malaysia, The Falklands, and to Afghanistan and Iraq in more recent times.
Along the way, the personnel of the RAMC have been awarded 14 Victoria Crosses (two with bars, meaning they have had it twice), one George Cross, 630 Distinguished Service Orders, 1,806 Military Crosses, 464 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 2,375 Military Medals and 16 George Medals.
The cost has been high: 1,180 RAMC officers and 8,165 soldiers have died in the service of their country.
There was a very large presence of the RAMC in Maidstone during the First World War and it recruited extensively in the town.
The Monckton Drill Hall, off College Road, which today is home to the Army Cadets, was built in 1898 to house the unit. If you look closely, you can still see the RAMC emblem above the gate – the serpent-entwined Rod of Asclepius.
The history of the Corps is of particular interest to reader Julie McLean.
Her grandfather John (known as Jack) Frederick Bates Duffett, whose family home was at 12 Heath Grove, Barming, was in the Corps and was gassed in France during the First World War.
His unit was in VillersBretonneux near Amiens and were supporting an Anzac division. He was to receive the Military Medal for rescuing soldiers trapped in the cellars of bombed buildings.
Fortunately Pte Duffett survived the gas attack. He returned to Maidstone and in civilian life became a nursing officer at Oakwood Hospital, living at 8 Fountain Lane, Barming, with his wife Margaret. The couple had two children Eileen – Mrs McLean’s mother – and Peter. He died in 1973.
While researching what happened to him, Mrs McLean discovered that a number of other men gassed with him in the same attack on April 18, 1918, also came from Maidstone.
They included Cpl Lesley Percy Young, born 1894, from Brunswick Street in Maidstone. He was awarded the Military Medal. He later became a hairdresser in Wheeler Street.
There was Ivo Towner, born 1897, from Green Row, East Farleigh. He later moved to Gallants Lane, East Farleigh, and became a cricket ball stitcher at the Alfred Reader Cricket Ball Factory in Teston.
Another was Joseph Richard William Budd, born 1888, from Whitmore Street, Maidstone. He became a papermill worker and lived in Charlton Street.
Percival Leonard Jarrett, born 1898, was also awarded the Military Medal. He lived at 65 Loose Road.
Alfred Greenaway, born 1876, and from Nursery Cottages in Hermitage Lane, survived the gas attack, but not the war. He