Distinguished Surgeons were not slow to volunteer their services for the campaign in South Africa and included such eminent figures as Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Frederick Treves, perhaps best known now for his work on John Meyrick, "The Elephant Man". They were appointed in the United Kingdom and a number accompanied General Buller and his First Army Corps to South Africa in October 1899.

Surgeon William Ironside Bruce was a X-Ray expert and served at Numbers 14 and 15 General Hospitals in Newcastle and Howick, Natal from 1899 until he was invalided to the United Kingdom on 16.5.1901 as a patient on the Hospital Ship Simla. He was later the Physician in Charge of the X-Ray Departments, Charing Cross Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street (Who's Who 1920 refers).