Ambulance (Fr.), originally a walking or movable hospital, but, since the Crimean war, a wagon for the conveyance of sick and wounded soldiers. The term is sometimes erroneously used to designate the portion of the Army Medical Department which renders first aid to the wounded, and even that work itself.
The four-wheeled ambulance wagon used in the British army allows of two stretchers being run into it, for which purpose the stretcher legs are provided with small iron wheels. Three men can sit on the tail-board, which lets down to form a foot-rest, and two others with an attendant (who accompanies each wagon) on a similar seat in front. There are a basket hanging from the roof to carry the men's arms and valises, water-buckets below the wagon, and a barrel of water on the splinter-bar. The roof is high, of waterproof canvas marked with the Geneva cross, and the wagon is drawn by two horses driven postillion fashion.
During an action, the battalion stretcher-bearers (two bearers and one stretcher per company) pick up the wounded as they fall, and carry them to the dressing-station. In this work the men of the divisional bearer company assist, and, after the action is over, the first line of ambulanees (10 per division), under a medical officer, drives on to the field, searches for and clears it of wounded, and carries them also to the dressing-station, which is close up, but if possible out of fire, in buildings, and near water.
The second line of ambulances (23 country or other wagons per division) is kept about half a day's march (5 or 6 miles) in rear of the field of battle. When required, the medical officer in charge of the dressing-station summons these conveyances, and the wounded are carried in them to the divisional field-hospital, which will have been established as near the front as possible, but quite out of fire, near a good road and water, and in buildings or tents. Each British army corps would have 25 field-hospitals, of which 12 would be horsed and march in rear of the corps, the remainder forming stationary field-hospitals at the base of operations or at convenient intervals along the lines of communication. To these the wounded would be moved as soon as possible from the movable field-hospitals, which must always be cleared before an action.
Hospital or ambulance ships and trains, and mules with two cacolets or hammocks each, are also used for the conveyance of sick and wounded soldiers.
Ambulance wagons did not exist in the British army during the Crimea. The sick and wounded were carried by the sailors in hammocks, in ordinary transport wagons, and in ambulances borrowed from the French; nor were there any trained stretcher-bearers, field-hospitals, or hospital ships; the bandsmen alone were available to carry away their wounded comrades, and the regimental surgeons dressed their wounds on the field. To meet this deficiency, Lord Herbert's commission was appointed in 1857 and 1858, and effected considerable improvements, amongst others introducing into the service an ambulance wagon of similar type to that used by the French in the Crimea. Though restricted in military language to the wagon above described, the expressions ambulance (as of St John's or Red Cross societies) and ambulance corps are popularly used to cover the whole modern organisation for the immediate relief of wounded soldiers on the field of battle, called officially a Bearer Company (q.v.) in the British army, and a Sanitary Detachment in the German.
A civil ambulance association was originated in 1877 by the Knights of St John (q.v.), with the object of giving practical instruction respecting first aid to sufferers from accidents. Its success has led to the establishment of a St Andrew's Ambulance Association in Scotland, and of local centres throughout the kingdom. Classes are trained by its lecturers, and in most large towns ambulance wagons and attendants can be summoned by telephone from the society's office. Most members of the British police force now hold either the certificate or the higher medal of the association.