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As you begin your twour, the museum has two Sections:

1. Section A in the Hoffmeister Building fronting 1st Avenue

2. Section B  Faces Burrard Street.

Access to both is controlled  by the Duty Commissioner who is located in an office at the entrance to the Hoffmeister Building .

 

Section A is designed as a Gallery through which the Ambulance Members, and other visiting Health 

Services personnel pass as they come to work each day. The Gallery has some pictures, biographies and  accounts of those Medical Personnel who went before today’s serving members and to remind them they are heirs to a fine corps record of service. Because the Gallery has no access restrictions to serving members it is hoped Members of the Field Ambulance will develop the habit of stopping regularly to absorb facets of their History. 

 

Section B is designed to answer the questions visiting members of the public may have as they are escorted through room 206 in the Seaforth Armoury. They will view specific facts, biographies, & histories of the Medical Services of Canada & the World in General. It’s website is set up to receive specific questions & provide the viewer with the relevant answers. 

 

Section B is aimed at three different Groups. 

 

Civilian Doctors, nurses, dentists and other Health Professionals who might be willing to consider joining the Health Services Reserve.  Section B is designed to show them how Military Medicine is greatly influenced by factors they will not have met in their Civilian Practices. 

 

Visiting Members of other Canadian Branches , so they can better understand the Unique Challenges that face Medical Personnel in their Service. 

 

Ordinary Canadian Citizens with enquiring minds and Consciences so that they can have a better grasp of how Canada’s Medical Personnel go about their Wartime duties and what democratic ethics they have which distinguished them from Totalitarian abuses which have existed in Dictatorial Military Forces. 

 

Many  Other Military Museums exist to commemorate single regiments or single services but a Military Medical Museum faces a more difficult task!  How to adequately illustrate all the many tasks and roles the Royal Canadian Health Services is mandated to full fill for all three of our Services. Moreover the R.C.H.S. has to prepare itself to deal with such emergencies as climate disasters, foreign starvations, the consequences of war crimes committed by unscrupulous regimes,  & trying to relieve Mental Health Casualties of their burdens. 

( trying to cover all these matters is a wide task within the space of one room. The consequence is that we have to closely fill Room 206 and most visitors will not be able to devote the necessary time & energy to absorb all the material on display. We suggest you check the list below, select 3 or 4  subjects you would like to read and ask the staff to direct you to them. ) 

 

Some of the Subjects dealt with in Room 206 

 

• “Afghan Curtural & Social Conditions which faced our Soldiers in that Country in recent Years” 

• “The Long & Arduous Battle Canadian Navy & Canada’s Merchant Seamen fought to bring the Vital Weapons & supplies across the Atlantic & on to Russia” 

• “The Pioneering Plastic Surgery of the RCAF in World War 11” 

• “The Great Threat that Battlefield Rats pose to the Health & food of Soldiers & Civilians in World Wars” 

• “Keeping Bridge building Elephants, Desert -Patrolling Camels, & Military Horses & Mules Healthy & Happy” 

• “The 14th Army’s Elephant Company CO, A Man who had once had to De-constipate an Elephant & on another Occassion had to take his courage in his hands & deliver a Hard Blow to a Jumbo plagued with an Abscess & lived to survive the Elephant’s Outrage” 

• “A Collarge of Photos showing  Canadian Soldiers in Front Lines of World War 1.” 

• “Briefing our Medics to be aware of the Possibility that they may uncover cases of Sexual Violence on Battlefields & How they should react when discovering such Evidence” 

• “Canada’s Doctors & Medics captured by Japanese & who in their Captivity devoted themselves to trying to keep their Comrades alive in Deprived Circumstances.” 

• “The Canadian Dietician Nurse who Struggled for hours to hold onto another Nurse & save her life, after their Newfoundland —- was sunk by a U- Boat” 

• “ A Vancouver Doctor who was the only Surgeon on an Atlantic Convoy & who had to be Winched over the waves to another Ship in order to treat a Crewman who had Suddenly Collapsed from an Unknown Cause” 

 

How visitors to Room 206 in the Seaforth can access information?   

As they enter they will come face to face with accounts of  Photographic & written accounts of our History. There is also an extensive display of  Models wearing Service Specific Uniforms.  In several display cases can be seen smaller items that have been donated over the Years. In the Center of the room is a Depiction of the Magnificent Surgical  Achievements of Canadian Surgeon Captain Jacob Markowitz & his team in keeping alive so many of their fellow POWs who had been so seriously injured while being forced to work by their Japanese Captors building “The Death Railway In Burma”