Medical examination when joining The Remounts

[willyam]

Hello,

I am aware that it was standard practice that every new recruit had to undergo a medical examination to ensure that he was fit to serve.

However, I am wondering if the need for such an examination did not apply in the case of men joining The Army Remount Service of the RASC.

I mention this because in a "call to arms" recruitment notice, that formed part of a national newspaper advertising campaign in 1915, the RASC specifically stated that "ordinary standards of height and chest measurement may be waived provided men are organically sound" and also that the eyesight test could be taken whilst wearing glasses.

My thinking is that the usual medical examination of such recruits could well have been counterproductive, if it inadvertently led to the rejection of a disproportionate number of men that the Remount Service so desperately needed.

Perhaps instead just a visual physical check might have been conducted (e.g. all limbs present & correct etc.).

My interest in this topic is prompted by the discovery that an ancestor was accepted into The Remounts even though (as his medical discharge papers confirm) he would surely have been rejected had he undergone a full medical examination at the point of recruitment.

Does anyone have an ancestor who joined The Remounts around this time and who may have been "organically sound" but not otherwise fit enough for the rigours of the battlefield?

Willyam

[jim1]

I don't have anyone in the Remounts however as the war progressed & casualty lists grew accordingly standards slipped & men who were or might have been rejected were now being accepted.
The exception to this were the Infantry who had to be A1.
Men classed as B1-B4 were accepted.

[willyam]

Jim1,

This man's attestation was recorded on Army Form B2506 and neither it, nor his other service papers, make any reference to his state of fitness upon recruitment.

Willyam

[MaxD]

There were only 4 remount squadrons initially all stationed in UK and then more established overseas at base depots so understandable that physical requirements could be less than for "active service in the field".  Category B fitness would allow a man to work overseas on the lines of communication.

Aligning with jim1.

MaxD