The detail on the board at the feet of this group is difficult to make out; it appears to read ‘Chancer’s Club, Crete, 1903’. According to Eric Partridge’s ‘A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Volume One’, a ‘Chancer’ was a slang term for ‘…a liar; also an incompetent, or one too confident in his ability….’ The term was apparently in use in the British military by 1914 and dates from approximately 1870.
I have to admit I have no idea whatsoever what the ‘Chancer’ (?) Club is or was, but, judging by the photograph, it would appear to have involved the consumption of alcohol and cigars at some stage or other. Notwithstanding, these three members of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and their colleagues, seemed to have enjoyed participating in the Club’s activities in Candia it in 1903.
Chaucer’s Club. RAMC Candia 1903.
Exact numbers of RAMC personnel on Crete at any given time are difficult to find; most records refer to ‘detachments’ of the Corps without giving numbers. However, in 1903, they would have been responsible for the health care of 2/Cameron Highlanders, until March, and 1/Royal Dublin Fusiliers from March onwards. During 1903, with an average strength of 410 men and 510 hospital admissions, 222 of which being for Malaria, only one British soldier died on the island.[1]
According to British Army Proficiency Badges by Denis Edwards and David Langley, the Red Cross badge was worn on the upper right arm by other ranks of the Army Hospital Corps from 1874, then by the Army Medical Staff from 1888 and by the RAMC from 1898. The only other units to wear it were Volunteer units where it indicated proficiency as a medical orderly. The RAMC officially stopped wearing it in 1926. (Many thanks to Bruce Bassett-Powell at Uniformology for the above information.)
[1] 1905 [Cd.2434] Army Medical Department Report for the year 1903. Volume XLV.
The British in Crete, 1896 to 1913. 
Blowing up the picture it appears to say Chaucer’s rather than Chancer’s. I believe there was a fad at one time for developing public speaking skills via Chaucer clubs, the idea being based on Chaucer’s Tales, i.e. everybody sat around in a tavern and was encouraged to tell their story. Also people in those days were sticklers for getting the apostrophe in the right place and if it was a club for Chancers it would surely be the Chancers’ club rather than Chancer’s club, unless only one of them was a chancer.
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You could well be correct. I’ve spent hours staring at the photograph and trying to work out if it reads Chaucer’s or Chancer’s. In the end, it was the Eric Partridge information, that ‘chancer’ was British Army slang in this period, that made me plump for that version. The delights of historical research!
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