Americans and the RAMC

[GrenPen]

I have got somewhat confused when looking at this topic.

It had been my assumption that up to the declaration of war on 6 April 1917, there had been a number of physicians working in university field hospitals, American Red Cross establishments etc who had civilian status, owing to America being a neutral country.

 

To further muddy the waters, it appears that members of the Medical Officer Reserve Corps travelled to Europe, presumably with civilian status, and undertook medical service. (They would remain as civilians until such time as mobilisation of the Reserve was declared?)

In some instances, it would appear that some men were given temporary commissions in the Royal Army Medical Corps, such as Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Cabot (1872-1945). Given that these men did not give up their US citizenship, I am rather surprised to see this.  

For the majority who served, would it have been the case that they had civilian status, but following the outbreak of war they were deemed to be members of the US Army Medical Corps, and accorded ranks?

It has been confusing to look at the War Office MICs. They seem to reject out of hand any medal entitlement, as the men are deemed to be officers in the US Army Medical Corps. As they are not British nationals, and did not serve in the British Army, the clerk does not see any entitlement. Contrarily, the medal rolls tell a story of civilian service, usually for recorded time periods of service prior to Wilson's declaration of war, thus they have entitlement to the British War Medal, with the Victory Medal being provided by the US Army.

[GrenPen]

Still no replies.....

 

In the mean time, I have found the following compilation of potted biographies does seem to cover a lot of those who served with the unit:

"Harvard´s Military Record in the World War" 

Accessible via Ancestry dataset "U.S., Adjutant General Military Records, 1631-1976"

There are a fair few men with Temporary Honorary commissioned ranks in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and subsequent service in the US Army upon the outbreak of war.

[DavidOwen]

A search of TNA does bring up a number of MICs for "American Royal Army Medical Corps" - some of whom are in the Harvard unit, others at the American Hospital and various other units (including Chicago and Orthopaedics). 

A selection of images courtesy of Ancestry free access below:

 

 

Note: Temp Hon (crossed out)