United States. A Career Document Grouping to Surgeon General George H. Torney, Signed by Roosevelt and Secretaries of War

A career document grouping to Surgeon General George H. Torney, consisting of:

1. A document from the office of the United States President, appointing George H. Torney to the position of Deputy Surgeon General with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, effective August 6th, 1903. It is dated November 28th, 1903 and is signed by former United States President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of War, Elihu Root. It measures 397 mm (w) x 498 mm (l), with slightly faded ink in the filled sections, in better than very fine condition. 

2. A document from the office of the United States President, appointing George H. Torney to the position of Captain in the MeAdical Section of the Officer’s Reserve Corps of the Army of the United States, effective April 9th, 1917. It is dated April 9th, 1917 and is signed by the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker. It measures 406 mm (w) x 492 mm (l), with slightly faded ink in the filled sections, in better than very fine condition. 

3. A document from the office of the United States President, appointing George H. Torney to the position of Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps, effective August 6th, 1903. It is dated May 1st, 1908, and is signed by the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and Acting Secretary of War Robert Shaw Oliver. It measures 389 mm (w) x 483 mm (l), with slightly faded ink in the filled sections, in better than very fine condition. 

4. A document awarding George H. Torney entry into the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. It is written entirely in latin, and is signed near the bottom by six endorsing individuals. It bears a golden seal on a green ribbon, and measures 394 mm (w) x 498 mm (l), with slightly faded ink in the filled sections, in better than very fine condition. 

Footnote: George Henry Torney (June 1st, 1850 - December 27th, 1913) was a physician in the United States Navy and Army, who served as the 21st Surgeon General of the United States Army. He began his schooling at Carroll University in New Windsor (Maryland) and received his medical training at the University of Virginia. After graduating in 1870 he began his military career in the United States Navy as an assistant surgeon. He resigned from the Navy in 1875 and served as the first lieutenant assistant surgeon of the United States Army. During the Spanish-American War, he served on the hospital ship Relief, transporting sick and injured soldiers between Cuba and Puerto Rico. He also served in the Philippines from 1902 to 1903, where he was in charge of the First Reserve Hospital in Manila. From 1904 to 1908, he served in California in command of the General Hospital at the Presidio of San Francisco. Following the April 1906 earthquake, with much of the city destroyed by the quake and ensuing fires, Torney was appointed medical chief for the city: he opened the military hospitals for city use and organized the creation of a field hospital and a refugee camp, and averted an epidemic. He died of bronchial pneumonia at his home in Washington D. C. in December 1913.