ASNOM - The Naval and Overseas Health Association

A.S.N.O.M.
An Association State-approved by decree
on December 1933

the ASNOM Badge

The Naval and Overseas Health Association (Association Amicale Santé Navale et d'Outre Mer) the acronym of which is ASNOM is an association which brings together physicians and pharmacists, who are either alumni of "the Ecole de Santé Navale" (Medical Naval School) in Bordeaux, also known as "Santé Navale" or alumni of the Colonial Section of the "Ecole de Santé Militaire" (Military Medical School) in Lyons.

After their graduation all of them had to undergo a specific medical training course which was tailored according to the needs of the part of the military they had been assigned to .This supplemental training took place in Toulon for the Navy, in Marseilles for the Colonial Army and in Versailles for the Air Force.

The Navy Medical Corps was the first one to be set up. It acquired an identity of its own during the seventeenth century in 1640 with Richelieu but a real Navy Medical corps had to wait until 1681 to be set up when Colbert issued a government decree and then later when Seignelay in 1869 could issue another one which fully dealt with the problem.

The Colonial Medical Corps stems directly from the Navy Medical Corps. In 1890 the Colonies and Protectorates Medical Corps was set up which became later in 1903 the Colonial Army Medical Corps. It was assigned the duties of looking after the health of troops in the colonial army and was also in charge of all Public Health duties in all countries belonging to the colonial Empire (excepted for Maghreb). This site aims mostly at making better known the achievements of these physicians and pharmacists, which took place in the course of their humanitarian work from 1890 to 1968.

It is only later that the Air Force Medical Corps got an identity of its own, some time between the two World Wars . In 1934 both its civilian and military specificities started to be acknowledged and the corps was officially set up on September 30, 1940.

HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION

The "Association amicale des anciens élèves de l'école principale du service de santé de la marine et des colonies" (the Main School of the Navy and Colonial Medical Corps Alumni Association) was first started in Bordeaux in 1911 and from its very beginning had branches in Paris, Rochefort, Dakar, Tien-Tsin, Beyrouth and Antananarivo.

In 1932 the association headquarters were moved to Paris and the Association became denominated "Amicale Santé Navale et Coloniale". On the photograph of the Members of the 1939 Board of the Association one can see :
- at the center Emmanuel Petit de la Villeon, Chairman, class 1900, retired naval medical officer,
- at the upper left side Victor Le Gorgeu, Vice Chairman, class 1900 ,retired colonial medical officer,
- at the upper right Merleau Ponty, Vice Chairman, class 1891, retired naval medical officer,
- at the right hand side of the Chairman Maurice Jauneau, Secretary, class 1889, retired colonial medical officer,
- at the left hand side of the Chairman Paul Letrosne, Treasurer, class 1890, retired naval medical officer,
- at the bottom left Henri Mollandin de Boissy, class 1917,Deputy Secretary
- at the bottom right Muel, retired colonial pharmaceutical officer, deputy Treasurer.

As in 1960 the "troupes coloniales" were now denominated "troupes de marine" the association followed suit and changed its name becoming known as "Amicale Santé navale et Troupes de Marine".

When the Association statutes changed on April 16th 1985 the Association was given its present denomination which is now "Amicale Santé Navale et Outre Mer" with its acronym ASNOM.

This association brings together physicians and pharmacists, who are either alumni of the "Ecole de Santé Navale et Coloniale" (Naval and Colonial Medical School) in Bordeaux, or alumni of the Colonial Section of the "Ecole de Santé Militaire" (Military Medical School) in Lyons. Some physicians and pharmacists who did not train in the medical military academies but who happened to have worked with the Colonial Medical Corps are also entitled to apply for membership.

The association board on the April 16th 1939 election

Long before the creation of the Colonial Medical Corps the Navy Medical Corps which from the eighteenth century onwards, had been thoroughly structured, supplied medical care to soldiers, missionaries, traders and their native laborers.

Ship surgeons and apothecaries who escorted the first european explorers in the discovery of the world had nevertheless only empiric data and their sense of observation to help them fight these dreadful tropical diseases. By the end of the nineteenth century a scientific approach of these diseases became possible with technological advances and breakthroughs thanks to the Pasteurian revolution.

Meanwhile as colonial empires looked now stable it became obvious that a medical service had to be set up as the tasks were now well beyond the possibilities of the Navy Medical Corps. After attempting the use of a civilian medical corps, a "Colonies and Protectorates Medical Corps" was finally set up in 1890.

Badge of the Colonial Army Medical Corps

This Medical Corps employed medical officers and pharmacists of the military whose training took place at the "Ecole de Santé Navale et Coloniale" which was started in Bordeaux the same year and in 1893 this corps was denominated the Colonial Army Medical Corps The Pharo Institute of Tropical Medicine was set up in 1905 and became a melting pot for all its attendees who went there to acquire some practical training and the frame of mind of a colonial medical officer or pharmacist.

In fact in the period of time between 1890 and 1968 France assigned all public health duties in the colonial Empire to the Colonial Army Medical Corps, a military corps with a definite civilian calling. This idea was quite a remarkable one and its implementation over the years proved to be a favourable one.

Trainees of the "Ecole de Santé Navale" who have chosen to serve in the Navy undergo their specific training in Toulon at the training institute of the Navy Medical Corps.

From 1941 onwards the "Ecole de Santé Navale et coloniale" started also to train some of the future medical officers and pharmacists of the Airforce Medical Corps which had been recently set up. Their specific training takes place at the Airforce Medical Training Institute located in Versailles.

These facts supply an explanation for the unequal distribution of the fellows of the Association.

On December 31rst 2003 the association had 1850 members :

Distribution of the Association members

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION

These are expressed in the Statutes of the Association :

- Keeping alive bonds of friendship and shared ideas which result at first from having spent together five and then later seven years as trainees in the quarters of the military medical academies of Bordeaux and Lyons and from the attendance to the Colleges of Medicine or Pharmacy of these towns and later also from the vivid recollection of their life while being on assignment overseas in the same places.

- Providing to these fellow members and their relatives in all circumstances of their lives with all possible professional, financial and moral assistance.

- Asserting and keeping for the record the achievements made either at sea or in the colonies, by veterans of these different medical corpses as these achievements are most of the time ignored while colonies are now independant countries.

- Preserving and strengthening the bonds with the "Ecole du Service de Santé des Armées" (Army Medical School) in Bordeaux and its trainees through the attendance of its traditional formal events by some fellow members and through the allocation of prizes to deserving trainees.

KEEPING THE ASSOCIATION GOING

The association is run by a board of 24 members elected by their fellow members on the occasion of their annual general meeting. Among its members a national committee is then selected which includes individuals originating from the different medical corpses of the military, the Navy, the former Colonial Army and the Airforce.

The association includes twelve regional branches in France and two other ones which are located in Dakar, Senegal and in Antananarivo, Madagascar which bring together French physicians who are still practicing or retired in these countries and Senegalese and Malagasy physicians who were trained in Bordeaux with the statute of foreign trainees. There are also some physicians from abroad who are fellows of the association as they underwent their training in Bordeaux and they can select the branch of their choice.

On the occasion of its own annual formal meeting each branch elects a regional board which is in charge of planning cultural and tourist activities. This contributes first to strengthen bonds of friendship between fellows and also helps to recall shared recollections but above all these shared activities give to fellows belonging to different ranges of age the opportunity to meet.

Members have to pay yearly dues and these funds are used for allocations to families who are in need, to make donations to selected institutions and to offer prizes to trainees of the medical academy in Bordeaux. Moreover these funds supplemented by donations made by alumni are used to issue a magazine named "Bulletin de l'ASNOM".

The Association precincts in Paris

Every year a general national meeting is held successively in one of the regional branches. On this occasion one third of the board is renewed and decisions are taken regarding any possible adjustment of the association activities : charity activities, keeping a safe record of the Alumni's achievements, publication of the association news bulletin and formulation of opinions regarding the bi-annual magazine.

Some fellow members regularly attend the traditional annual events of the "Ecole du Service de Santé des Armées" (Army Medical Corps School) in Bordeaux on behalf of the association, and take part in the annual ceremony to rekindle the flame at the "Arc de Triomphe". The association also takes part in numerous military and civilian events.

THE ASNOM BULLETIN

Twice a year ASNOM publishes a bi-annual magazine called "bulletin de l'ASNOM" .Its first issue was released in 1920 but several times its publishing had to be discontinued especially during WWII.

This magazine is a reflection of the association's dynamism as it reports its different activities, giving a rundown of meetings held in the different regional branches and also the accounts of the annual general meeting of the Association and of the board meetings.

A large part of the magazine which is devoted to the regional branches either located in France or overseas strives to give an accurate report of the association life.

Elders are kept informed of the kind of life young trainees are having in the Medical military academies and of the career they can expect to have .It strives also to shed some light on the lives of elders either still on active duty or retired .
Another part of the magazine is for first hand papers written by association members.

The calling of this magazine is to constitute a link and a means of communication between all the association members. A better knowledge of our common heritage is made possible with the contribution of everyone and this magazine helps keep a record of achievements and of all memorable events. And lastly, it keeps up with the evolution of the membership.

Pointe Denis, Libreville (1960)