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MEANING
The New-Zealand- and Australian-English noun zambuck (also Zambuk, Zam-Buck, etc.) is colloquially used to designate a medic, paramedic or first-aid worker (particularly a member of the St John Ambulance Brigade), especially when in attendance at a sporting event.
This noun occurs, for example, in the following from Women’s progress, in black and white, by David McNicoll, published in The Bulletin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Tuesday 6th March 1984 [page 43, column 1]:
NOTICED HOW many women are driving buses these days? Dozens of them. Good drivers, too.
Slowly, steadily—and efficiently—the females are moving into the spheres which for years seemed secure for males.
What I hadn’t realised is that women are doing a large part of the duties of the Zambuck. If you don’t know what a Zambuck is, it’s someone in the black and white uniform of the St John Ambulance Brigade doing honorary duty at a sports arena, ready to dash on the field with everything from linament [sic] to stretcher.
ORIGIN
Zam-Buk was originally the proprietary name of a popular brand of antiseptic ointment, first produced in 1902 by the Bile Bean Manufacturing Company of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. This name seems to be an arbitrary formation—as implied in the first sentence of the following advertisement, published in The Australian Star (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Friday 12th December 1902 [page 3, column 5]:
ZAM-BUK
Name carries no meaning, the Ointment carries a blessing to thousands of sufferers from Eczema, Running Sores, Bad Legs, Sore Heels, Scurf in Head, Face Sores, Pimples, and a host of skin ailments that ordinary medicines do not reach. Free from minerals and animal fats, the youngest baby can take no hurt from the use of it.
As an embrocation for Rheumatism, Stiff Joints, and Sciatica, Zam-Buk will greatly help. For Piles, blind, bleeding, and internal, Zam-Buk probably scores most.
Keep a box on the shelf, every day nearly cuts, burns, bruises, the sting of insects, &c., may be experienced, and for such things Zam-Buk, freely used, immediate relief is experienced. Sold at 1s 6d, generally, or sent post paid on receipt of price by proprietors, the Bile Bean Coy., 39 Pitt-st., Sydney.
The ointment is associated with sporting events in the following passage from an advertisement for Zam-Buk, published in The Ballarat Star (Ballarat, Victoria, Australia) of Thursday 20th July 1905 [page 4, column 5]:
All athletes need a safe, reliable “first aid” for the treatment of bruises, strains, sprains, and other injuries that are their inevitable lot one day or another. Whether on the football field, the cycling track, the cinder path, or across country, Zam-Buk, which has been rightly described as the newest and best first aid, is indispensable.
EARLY OCCURRENCES
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences that I have found of the noun zambuck (also Zambuk, Zam-Buck, etc.) used in the sense of a medic, paramedic or first-aid worker:
1-: From an account of a football match between St. George and Manly, published in The St. George Call (Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia) of Saturday 25th August 1906 [page 2, column 4]:
Manly were playing up well, and St. George were unable to penetrate their defence. Corbett was winded towards the end, and hardly had he been attended to before Eagar and Prentice were ‘out’ The former requiring the attendance of ‘Zam-Buck’ as the ambulance man is familiary [sic] known by footballers.
2-: From Advice to a young soldier about to dig, by ‘Crank Handle’, published in Chronicles of the N.Z.E.F. Records of Matters Concerning the Troops (London, England) of Friday 21st June 1918 [page 221, column 1]—N.Z.E.F. stands for New Zealand Expeditionary Force:
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,
Who have faith in Sergeant-Majors,
Believe ye that in our Army
Every cove is not a toiler,
That in even “diggers” think-tanks
There are schemings, plannings, ruses
To avoid the “beaucoup travail,”
That the tenderfoot and Zambuk,
Working madly in the trenches,
Comes a “gutzer” in those trenches,
And is taught to take a rumble.
3-: From an account of a football match between Newton and Paddington, by ‘Goal-Post’, published in The Arrow (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Friday 14th May 1920 [page 8, column 4]:
When McCall was carried off the field in the match against Sydney and whisked away in the ambulance, it was thought there would be no more Mac this season; but he stripped against the Railway team apparently none the worse for his enforced jaunt in the “zambuck” waggon.
4-: From The St. George Call (Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia) of Friday 22nd May 1925 [page 1, column 2]:
Mr. A. W. Yager, President of St. George District Rugby Football League has, we are informed, been elected a member of St. George District Hospital Board […]. For many years he attended sports meetings as “Zam Buck,” and many have reason to be thankful for his care and attention.
5-: From Rugby Football, by ‘Full Back’, published in The Otago Daily Times (Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand) of Thursday 3rd September 1925 [page 4, column 1]:
“Where’s a Zambuk?” was the question put to “Full Back” by a New South Wales player at Carisbrook on Saturday. On inquiry, I made the discovery that a “Zambuk” in the vernacular of the New South Wales footballer is an ambulance man.
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