Were medics less exposed?

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

When I recently watched the British television series Downton Abbey, one of the characters seemed to plan to get away from being killed in the coming war, by enlisting as a medical assistant at a field hospital, before he (supposedly) would get drafted as a frontline soldier.

Was he right about this choice? Were the death rates lower for those who worked as medical personnel?

I assume that he would not have to shoot at people, and he would not have to participate in mass charges against machine guns, but he would still be exposed to artillery barrages at the hospital ward, and to gunfire from the trenches if he has to aid wounded in nomansland.

There is also the case of exposure to diseases. He might be in a somewhat healthier environment than the trench fighters, but at the same time he would suffer a lot more of sickness and diseases among the people he meet.

[redcoat]

Working as a medical assistant would normally be safer than being in the front line, but as you have stated if he was assigned to a field hospital near to the front he would face danger from artillery and gas attacks.

So the answer seems to be, safer than a normal front line soldier, but not completely safe.

ps: Of the three men who have won the Victoria Cross twice, two of them were medical officers