ABSTRACT
Gwyn Harries-Jenkins, The Army in Victorian Society is concerned exclusively with officers. The story of Britain’s imperial legions is indeed as much a record of callous indifference to human suffering, incompetence in high places, and the wanton waste of expendable cannon fodder as of bravery and honour, glory and self-sacrifice. McGrigor himself was a dedicated humanitarian and an enlightened reformer of military hospitals and army hygiene; but in the absence of positive encouragement from the commander in chief or the secretary at war, he lacked the enterprise to tabulate, publicise, or circulate the valuable information contained in the voluminous medical records. The cost of erecting sound, airy barracks and keeping them in adequate repair would have been far more economical than continued expenditure on recruiting, training, and transporting reliefs from Britain to supply the place of casualties, incurred in part because of unhealthy accommodation.
