Medical Officers
Of the Malta Garrison
Charles Tucker
? – 1828

Service Record

16 Feb 1797 Assistant Surgeon 1st Regiment of Dragoons.

10 July 1803 Surgeon 6th Battalion of Reserve.

26 July 1804 Surgeon 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot.

Malta 1804 Surgeon 61st Foot.

Malta 1805 Absent from his regiment.

11 May 1809 Surgeon 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot.

1 June 1809 Surgeon 2nd/10th (North Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot.

30 July–Dec 1809 Served at Walcheren.

Malta Aug 1810 Arrived in Malta.

Malta 1811 Surgeon 2nd/10th Foot.

July 1811 10th Foot left Malta.

13 May 1813 Staff Surgeon.

1813–1814 Served in the Peninsular War (1808–1814).

Malta Nov 1815 Arrived in Malta.

Malta Nov 1816 Staff Surgeon on garrison duty at Valletta.

Malta 1817 On Garrison duty and in charge of the Ophthalmia Hospital Valletta.

Malta 1818 On Garrison duty and in charge of the Ophthalmia Hospital Valletta.

Malta 1819 In charge of the Ophthalmia Hospital Valletta. Attributed ophthalmia "not to the heat and reflection from the diffusion of sandy particles with which the island is so largely supplied, but to the negligence of those rules which have been so ordained, and which have of late so strenuously acted on".¹ The barrack department only issued one small metal wash basin for every six men, a practice which encouraged cross infection.

Malta Dec 1819 During the preparation of his half-yearly report of the Ophthalmia Hospital, Tucker asked the PMO to relieve him "from the necessity of answering such queries as can only belong to those whose immediate superintendence of Hospitals renders them less dependent on memory, a faculty which on the general turn of corporeal vigor, is in me completely impaired".¹

Malta 25 Sep 1820 Placed on half-pay. Remained in Malta and served as a Member of the Permanent Committee of the Charitable Institutions.