No 416 Brigade Surgeon Rowland Wimburn Carter
MRCS (Eng 1854) LSAL (1854)
21 Nov 1830 [Cape Town] – 20 Oct 1907 [Southsea]
Brigade Surgeon Rowland Wimburn Carter was admitted a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 10 April 1854. He entered the Army Medical Department as an Assistant Surgeon on 28 July 1854.
He served with the 20th Regiment of Foot in the Eastern Campaign of 1854–1856 and was present at the Battle of Alma, the siege and fall of Sebastopol and capture of Kinbourn. He received the Crimea Medal with two clasps and the Turkish Medal.
In 1858, Brigade Surgeon Rowland Wimburn Carter served with the 82nd Foot in the Indian Mutiny Campaign. He took part in the actions of Khankur and Bunkagaon and received the Mutiny Medal.
He also participated in the Afghan War of 1878–1880 and received the Afghan Medal.
In one of his confidential reports his PMO described him as being deficient in zeal, judgement and efficiency, and was censured for making unnecessary groundless complaints regarding the diets in the 3rd Station Hospital Aldershot
.
Dr Carter retired from the army in 1884, with the rank of Deputy-Surgeon-General. He settled at Southsea, and took a considerable part in the work of its various medical charities. Up to the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon of the Weymouth and Dorset County Royal Eye Infirmary, and for many years acted as anaesthetist to Weymouth Royal Hospital, assisting likewise in the work of the Princess Christian Hospital and Sanatorium.
He took a particular interest in everything connected with anaesthetics and was the inventor of an apparatus for administering ether at a definite temperature. On this subject he made several contributions to medical literature, including a paper on the administration of Chloroform in the British Medical Journal in 1893; on Chloroform Anaesthesia in the same Journal in the following year; and on the precise and scientific Administration of Chloroform and Ether; in the transactions of the Society of Anaesthetists in 1895.
His surgeon's box was sold at auction.
Service Record
28 July 1854 Assistant Surgeon 1st/20th (East Devonshire) Regiment of Foot.
Served in the Crimean War with the 1st/20th Regiment throughout the Eastern Campaign of 1854–55.
17 Feb 1857 Assistant Surgeon 82nd (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) Regiment of Foot.
1858 Served with the 82nd Regiment in the Indian Mutiny campaign. He was present at the actions of Khankur and Bunkagaon.
1 Dec 1865 Staff Assistant Surgeon.
1866–1867 On duty at Paisley.
9 Mar 1867 Staff Surgeon.
22 June 1867 Promoted Surgeon 1st/20th (East Devonshire) Regiment of Foot.
16 Sep 1868 Exchanged with Surgeon George Bankes Floyer Arden 48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot.
Malta 13 Oct 1868 Arrived from England.
Malta 12 May 1869 Appointed Staff Surgeon for duty at the Vittoriosa Hospital.
Malta 7 June 1869 Left for Madras.
1869–1874 On duty in Madras.
1 Mar 1873 Surgeon Major.
1874–1877 On duty in Dover.
1878–1880 Served in the Second Afghan War.
1878–1881 On duty in Bengal.
Feb 1880 Promoted Brigade-Surgeon under the terms of the Royal Warrant dated 27 November 1879.
26 Nov 1884 Was granted retired pay with the honorary rank of Deputy Surgeon–General.
1900 The Medical Directory of 1900 lists him at 13 Gloucester Road Weymouth.
1906 The Medical Directory of 1900 lists him at 18 Worthing Road Southsea.
20 Oct 1907 Died in his sleep at 18 Worthing Road Southsea, aged 77 years.
Bibliography
- Drew R., 1968. Entry No: 5328. Medical Officers in the British Army 1660 – 1960. Volume I: 1660 – 1898. London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library.
- RAMC/PE/3/27/Drew. Manuscript for Drew's Roll.
- Succession Book Vol VII. Returns of service of medical officers in the Regular Army.
- Military and Naval Medical Services. Br Med J (1884); 2:1101 (Published 29 November 1884).
- Obituary Br Med J (1907); 2: 1193 (Published 26 October 1907).
- Dr Rowland Wimburn Carter. Br Med J (1907): 2:1284 (Published 2 November 1907).