Sir Thomas Longmore was possibly the most famous Green Howard to be associated with Netley Hospital.

He was born on 10 October 1816 and entered the Army's Medical Department on 3 February 1843, when he was the Assistant Surgeon to the 19th Foot.

Before Longmore was promoted to Surgeon in 1854 he had seen service with the 19th Foot in the Ionian Islands, the West Indies, and North America. In 1854, he travelled with the regiment to the Crimea and saw service at the Battle of the Alma, Inkerman, and Sebastopol. He then travelled with the regiment to India in 1857, and was promoted to Deputy Inspector General in 1858.

Thomas Longmore was a colleague of Florence Nightingale, and in 1854 had written to "The Times" describing the appalling conditions around Sebastopol. It was partly through Florence Nightingale that he became Professor of Military Surgery at Fort Pitt in 1860, and then - in April 1863 - became the first Professor of Military Surgery at the Army Medical School at Netley Hospital.

Longmore was a leading authority on gunshot wounds and his 1861 publication, "Gunshot Wounds", became a standard text-book. He was also a humanitarian, and in 1864 became the first British Rrepresentative at the First Geneva Convention, - when the tradition of neutrality for army medical services, and the potent symbol of the Red Cross, was adopted.

Longmore was appointed Honorary Surgeon to Queen Victoria in 1868, and in the same year became a Companion of the Bath. In 1886 he was knighted, and on 30 September 1895 died in Swanage, Dorset.

The above facts are extracted from Newsletter No 3 of the Friends of the Green Howards Regimental Museum, and "Spike Island" by Philip Hoare (Published by Fourth Estate Books).

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