The first edition of The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist appeared in July 1999 as a quarterly journal aimed particularly at those participating in continuing medical education (CME, later known as CPD, continuing professional development) programmes. It included multiple-choice questions to be completed and submitted in return for the award of CME / CPD credits. The responsibilities of Editorial Board members were to advise on the commissioning of review articles in their area of specialty; commission and/or construct multiple-choice questions with explanation of answers; edit and subsequently proof-read their commissioned articles; write guest editorials; advise on new scientific, clinical and technical developments, clinical governance, risk management, areas of educational importance and medico-legal matters, and on the potential need for coverage in the journal; and to proof-read complete editions of the journal. The Board held its first meeting in June 1999.
The Reinstatement Committee was established in 1999 to consider how applications for reinstatement to the College Register from those removed as a result of GMC (or other) disciplinary action should be assessed. The remit of the Committee was:
1) To consider all applications for reinstatement to the RCOG Register of Fellows and Members from those who have been removed for reasons of misconduct;
2) To make all necessary and proper enquiries, as it saw fit, and to act according to equity and rules of natural justice;
3) To produce guidelines on the assessment procedure to be followed by both the applicant and the Committee, including appropriate criteria for reinstatement and an indication of the timeframe for the procedure;
4) To recommend to Council, in writing, the reinstatement, or otherwise, for each application. In 2001 the Committee reported to Council on progress and advised that it was necessary for the College to set up systems to ensure equity following rules of natural justice. This was particularly pertinent following the 1998 Human Rights Act. It was also recommended that the Committee deal with both removal and reinstatement. In 2001 a Removal and Reinstatement Committee was established in order to:
1) Review the membership of the College of those Fellows and Members who had been removed from the Register of Medical Practitioners maintained by the GMC or by the relevant body of any country overseas;
2) Review the membership of the College of those Fellows and Members referred to it by the President or his/her deputy where it was thought the individual had brought the College and/or profession into disrepute;
3) Assess applications for reinstatement received in the College from those who had previously been removed from the College Register for misconduct;
4) Comply with the regulations for removal from or reinstatement to the College Register as approved by Council. The Committee was to reach an agreed decision, which, if necessary, was a majority decision, and advised Council on these decisions. All discussions of the Committee were confidential to the Committee.
In 2005, the Post Graduate Medical Education Board (PMETB) was established as an independent regulatory body responsible for postgraduate medical education and training. It assumed its statutory powers on 30 September 2005 taking over the responsibilities of the Specialist Training Authority of the Medical Royal Colleges (STA) and the Joint Committee on Postgraduate Training for General Practice (JCPTGP). PMETB's statutory responsibilities included establishing, promoting, developing and maintaining standards and requirements for postgraduate medical education and training across the UK. In order to practice in the UK, doctors are legally required to be on the registers of specialists and general practicioners (GPs) maintained by the General Medical Council (GMC). A major facet of PMETB's work was to ensure that doctors were appropriately qualified and certified for application to the specialist and general practice (GP) registers. In response to this national development, the Equivalence of Training Committee was set up in August 2005, reporting to the Education Board. Its remit was to: redefine "equivalence" in respect of Specialist Registration; determine the standards required for an NHS Consultant within the specialty of obstetrics and gynaecology; agree methods of assessment according to guidance issued by PMETB; assess applications and submit recommendations to PMETB; liaise with PMETB on all appropriate issues; consider the liability to the College and how this may be indemnified. The Committee's primary function was to assess applications from O&G doctors applying to be included on the Specialist Register maintained by the General Medical Council: assessing and judging if a doctor's medical experience can be seen to be equivalent to the medical training they would have undertaken if they had passed the MRCOG. Previously the College had been responsible for deciding who should be entered onto the Specialist Register, but PMETB as an independent body took over this function in 2005. The Equivalence of Training Committee was established to report to the PMETB with recommendations on the equivalence of training, the College was no longer responsible for making the actual decision.
Following the Royal Commission on Medical Education and the establishment of the Central Committee on Postgraduate Medical Education it was felt, in 1967, that the College should increase its role in sponsoring and organising postgraduate education and an ad hoc Sub-committee on Continuing Education met to discuss the issue. This led in 1968 to the establishment of a Postgraduate Medical Education Committee to deal with postgraduate training for the three year period from registration up to the MRCOG examination and beyond. It was to oversee the administration of existing programmes, such as demonstrations, conferences, symposia and scientific meetings, and also to determine overall policy with regard to postgradute training regionally and locally. It was renamed the Postgraduate Committee in 1973. The Committee was disbanded in 1992 when it was replaced by the Education Board. From 1968 Regional Advisers (subsequently known as College Advisers and then Regional College Advisers) enabled the College to be better informed about postgraduate training at a local level. Their role included promoting the views of the College locally, providing the College with information on education and training in their regions, giving advice on the specialty to those organising training and also to trainees. From the early 1970s meetings of these Advisers were held quarterly and their discussions reported to the Postgraduate Committee.
The Population Investigation Committee (PIC) was established by the Eugenics Society in 1936 to promote and undertake inquiries into various aspects of population questions. In 1945 a Joint Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the PIC was established with the aim of conducting a survey of maternity services in selected areas throughout England, Scotland and Wales; the survey was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. All women in Great Britain who had given birth during a single week in March 1946 were interviewed by health visitors, and information collated on their use of maternity services, economic and social background, infant feeding and survival of the baby. The results were published in Maternity in Great Britain (Oxford University Press, 1948). In 1948 the Joint Committee's scope was broadened to include the study of child health and development, and a Follow-up Survey Sub-committee comprising RCOG, PIC and the Institute of Child Health (London School of Economics, University of London), was established to conduct a survey of the children enrolled in the 1946 survey. Two studies were made, in 1948 and 1950, again with funds from the Nuffield Foundation. In 1951 the College withdrew from the Joint Committee on the grounds that the work now extended beyond the scope of the College.
The Joint Steering Group of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care on teenage pregnancy was set up in July 1993. Its terms of reference were in line with the definition in Section D of the government document "Health of the Nation"(1993):
- To reduce the rate of conception amongst the under 16s by at least 50% by the year 2000.
- To reduce the number of unintended teenage pregnancies.
- To ensure the provision of effective family planning services for those people who wanted them. The first chairman was Stanley Simmons PRCOG, followed by David Bromham, chairman of the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care (FFPRHC). Members of the group also included representatives of the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, the Department of Health, the Health Education Authority and the Brook Advisory service. On 24th August 1993 it established three working groups to consider: emergency contraception, its availability, access and promotion; the need and content of research and audit; all aspects of sex education and promotion in relation to teenagers and other related groups. In 1994 the second working group passed its research and findings to the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care who were establishing an audit unit, and ceased to investigate further. The Steering Group organised a consensus conference on emergency hormonal contraception in December 1994; a book was produced.
This Working Party was a multidisciplinary group set up by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) in 2000. It was also supported by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), amongst others. It acted as an independent multidisciplinary body that campaigned for improvements in maternity care. It was formed to raise awareness of the public health implications of the rising caesarean section rate; to highlight the health and social needs of women and their families; and to emphasise the contribution that women-centred maternity services might make to the promotion of public health. In 2001, the NCT, RCM and RCOG, commissioned by the Working Party, published a commissioning toolkit for Primary Care Trusts designed to help them to update themselves on current thinking in maternity care provision and to improve local maternity services. In 2006 a second edition of this report was produced.
The National Birthday Fund for Maternity Services (later National Birthday Trust Fund) was founded in 1928. In the inter-war period it campaigned for the provision of analgesia in childbirth and improvements in midwifery services and also conducted research into nutrition. Following the Second World War, its primary activity became sponsoring research, particularly into perinatal mortality. It conducted nationwide surveys in 1946, 1958, 1970, 1984, 1990 and 1994 and also supported on-going cohort studies of the development of children. At the end of the 1960s there had been proposals that the Fund be merged with the RCOG, although this never came to fruition, although in subsequent years the Fund developed a close relationship with the RCOG, which became involved in a number of its research projects. Ties between the two organisations were enhanced by the involvement of Professor Geoffrey Chamberlain, later President of the RCOG, in several Fund projects. The second perinatal survey in 1970 focused on the care of mother and baby for the first week after birth. The RCOG offered specialist advice and underwrote some of the salary costs for the survey. The survey was published as 'British Births 1970: A survey under the joint auspices of the National Birthday Trust Fund and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' edited by Dr Roma Chamberlain and others (London, 1975-78). Following the establishment of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in 1978, the Fund decided to focus instead on single-subject surveys. One such was a 1984 confidential enquiry into place of birth, the results of which were published as 'Birthplace: Report of the confidential enquiry into facilities available at the place of birth conducted by the National Birthday Trust Fund' edited by Geoffrey Chamberlain and Philippa Gunn (Chichester, 1989). In 1993 the Fund joined forces with Birthright, a charitable branch of the RCOG which had been founded in 1963 and funded medical and scientific research into women's health. Birthright became the corporate Trustee of the Birthday Trust and the official merger of the two organisations accompanied its renaming as Wellbeing.
The College acts as a pressure group and as an advisory body for the Department of Health, its predecessors and various government agencies, on particular issues relating to obstetrics and gynaecology. It also liaises on these issues with private and international organisations concerned with womens' health and the medical profession.
In 1968, the Ministry of Health was dissolved and its functions transferred (along with those of the similarly dissolved Ministry of Social Security) to the newly created Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS). (Twenty years later, these functions were split back into two government departments, forming the Department of Social Security (DSS) and the current Department of Health.)
The College has released annual reports since its establishment as the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929. In 2006 the Annual Report was renamed the Annual Review, with the Annual Report and Accounts being published on the College website.
These books contain the minutes of more than one College committee, joint committee or working party. The practice of maintaining multi-purpose minute books was discontinued in 1987.
Florence May Peever enrolled with the Central Midwife's Board, 12 Dec 1925, she practised in Lancashire and West Yorkshire.
Eardley Lancelot Holland (1879-1967), kt, MD, Hon LLD, FRCP(Lond), FRCS(Eng), FRCS(Ed), Hon MMSA, was educated at Murchison Castle and King's College Hospital, where he became obstetric registrar and tutor in 1907. In 1916 he took up an appointment at the London Hospital, where he embarked on a programme of research into the causes of stillbirth at the request of the Ministry of Health. He served as an adviser in obstetrics to the Ministry of Health between 1937-1940 and on the outbreak of war in 1939 was responsible for organising the evacuation of pregnant women from London to the country. He played an important role in organising material for a report by the College to the Ministry on a national maternity service (see A5/4/3). He married twice and had three daughters.
Eardley Holland was a founder member of the Gynaecological Visiting Society and a Foundation Fellow of the RCOG. From 1929-1939 he held the position of Honorary Treasurer and he was for a time editor of the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire. In 1946 he became President of the College.
William Fletcher Shaw (1878-1961) was born near Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Owens College (later the Victoria University of Manchester). In 1920 he was appointed Professor of systematic obstetrics and gynaecology in the University of Manchester, where he remained until his retirement in 1943. He was married twice, with three sons by his first marriage. He was knighted in 1942.
Fletcher Shaw was a gynaecologist of considerable distinction, with particular interests in conditions of the uterus and the use of analgesics in labour. He was an active member of medical societies, including the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, Gynaecological Travellers and the Gynaecological Visiting Society. He was the joint founder, with William Blair-Bell, of the RCOG and its first Honorary Secretary, from 1929-1938. He was also the author of the first history of the College, Twenty-five years: the Story of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1954 (J & A Churchill Ltd, London, 1954). bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp.38-40.
John Bateman Lawson (1922-1997) MA, MB, Bchir, FRCS(Glasgow), FRCOG, has been a member of several committees of the College, including the Fellowship Selection Committee 1971-1976 and 1987-1989, Scientific Advisory and Pathology Committee 1972-1974, Postgraduate Committee 1978-1987, Examination Committee 1980-1987, Accreditation Committee 1981-1984, Council 1981-1983 and 1985-1989, Hospital Recognition Committee 1981-1987 and Higher Training Committee 1984-1987. He was Director of Postgraduate Studies 1981-1987 and Vice President from 1987-1989. He was also a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Ibadan, Nigeria, and was renowned for his work in African countries.
Emil Novak (1844-1957), MD 1904, Hon FRCOG 1948, was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He qualified at and held internship and resident appointments at Baltimore Medical College, later becoming Associate Professor. In 1915 he joined Cullen's Department at Johns Hopkins where be studied and lectured in gynaecological pathology, which was to become his speciality. He was an active member of the American Gynaecological Society and became its president in 1948. he was made an Honorary Fellow of the RCOG in the same year (bibliography: : see Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp.34-35). He presented a gavel to the College as a token of appreciation; the gavel was an exact replica of an original belonging to the American Gynaecological Society.
Wendy Diane Savage (b 1935), BA, MB, BCh, MRCS, LRCP, MRCOG 1971, FRCOG 1985, is Senior Lecturer in the Academic Department/General Practice and Primary Care at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London (bibliography: Register of Fellows and Members, RCOG, 1997). In 1985 she was suspended from her post at the Royal London Hospital for alleged incompetence. An enquiry was held and in 1986 she was exonerated.
John Nussey (1794-1862) was the favourite medical attendant of King George IV. In 1825 he was appointed Apothecary in Ordinary to the King, and served William IV, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in a similar position. He attended Queen Victoria in several of her confinements, including that of the future Edward VII. He was Master of the Society of Apothecaries of London from 1833-1834 and a Member of the Court of Assistants for many years. His Court dress and sword are on display in the foyer of the College.
John Nussey (1794-1862) was the favourite medical attendant of King George IV. In 1825 he was appointed Apothecary in Ordinary to the King, and served William IV, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in a similar position. He attended Queen Victoria in several of her confinements, including that of the future Edward VII. He was Master of the Society of Apothecaries of London from 1833-1834 and a Member of the Court of Assistants for many years. The items of clothing listed here were his property; his court dress and sword are on display in the foyer of the College.
James Young Simpson graduated from Edinburgh University in 1832. He was made President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1835 and became Professor of Midwifery there in 1839. He was especially famous for his advocacy and use of chloroform in obstetric practice, but was also renowned for his work in gynaecology and obsterics, particularly in the use of forceps and for various methods of ovariotomy.
Sir William Osler was born in Canada, 1849; educated, Trinity College, Toronto, 1867; McGill University, Montreal, 1870-1872; postgraduate study in University College Hospital, St Thomas's Hospital, University College and the Brown Institute, London, 1872; studied pathology in Berlin and Vienna; returned to Canada, 1874; lectureship in the Institutes of Medicine at McGill University; attending physician at Montreal General, 1878; member of the Royal College of Physicians, 1878; fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1883; chair of clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 1884; founder member of the Association of American Physicians, 1885; physician-in-chief at the hospital and professor of medicine at the medical school, Johns Hopkins University, 1889; regius chair of medicine, Oxford, 1905; died, 1919.
Tom Lewis was born in Hampstead, London, 27 May 1918. He spent his early childhood with his grandfather, A J S Lewis, a civil servant and later mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, where Tom attended the Diocesan College, Rondebosch. In 1933 he moved to London to live with his father, the artist Neville Lewis, and was educated at St Paul's School. He studied medicine at Jesus College, Cambridge and at Guy's Hospital, London, qualifying in 1942. He obtained the Gold Medal in Obstetrics.
In 1943 Lewis returned to Cape Town and enlisted in the South African Air Force, but was seconded to the Royal Army Medical Corps. He served in Egypt, Italy and Greece. After the Second World War, Lewis returned to Guy's Hospital, gaining the FRCS in 1946 and the MRCOG in 1948. He was appointed consultant at Guy's in 1948 and at Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital for Women in 1950. He also developed a thriving private practice.
Lewis was a keen supporter of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He served three times on the College Council, was Honorary Secretary, 1961-1968, and Senior Vice-President, 1975-1978. He was also active in the obstetric section of the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of the Gynaecological Club. He was awarded the CBE in 1979. Lewis died aged 85, 9 April 2004.
Publications: Progress in Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology (London: Churchill, 1956).
Born, 1849; educated at Merchant Taylors' School, at a school in Honfleur, France; and Lincoln College, Oxford; studied clinical medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, and obstetrics in Dublin, at the Rotunda Hospital; worked at Marischal College, Aberdeen; graduated MD from Aberdeen University, 1875; returned to London and became closely associated with his father's practice; member the Royal College of Physicians, 1877; editorial staff of the British Medical Journal; member of the Board of Examination of Midwives, instituted by the Obstetrical Society of London (he subsequently transferred himself from this Society to the British Gynaecology Society); physician to the British Lying-in Hospital and the Great Northern Central Hospital, where he later became senior physician; physician to the St George's and St James's Dispensary; consulting physician at the Royal Maternity Charity and the Prudential Assurance Company; physician to the Chelsea Hospital for Women; Honorary Corresponding Fellow of the Societe de Gynecologie de Paris, the Gynaecological Society of Boston, USA, and the Societe Imperiale de Medecine, Istanbul (then Constantinople); by the mid-1890s Barnes had practically retired from hospital work, devoting himself entirely to private practice; died, 1908.
Publications:
A Manual of Midwifery for Midwives (9 eds., last 1902)
System of Obstetric Medicine and Surgery (jointly written with Robert Barnes)
'The Indications Afforded by the Sphygmograph in the Puerperal State', Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London (1875)
Perineorrhaphy by Flap Splitting
Martin's Atlas of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (translated and edited)
German English Dictionary of Medical Words
Neugebauer on Spondylolisthesis (for the New Sydenham Society)
Harriet Amelia Scott Bird was born, 1864; educated, Medical College for Women, Edinburgh, 1893-1898; studied in Vienna in Ernst Wertheim's department, 1898; studied in Berlin; non resident house surgeon, Leith Hospital; gave up medicine after her marriage, 1901; died, 1934.
William Hunter was born, 1718; attended the local Latin school; Glasgow University, 1731-1736; medical apprenticeship in Hamilton; went to London to learn midwifery from William Smellie, 1740; John Douglas's anatomy assistant and tutor to Douglas's son William George, 1741; surgical pupil of David Wilkie at St George's Hospital; studied anatomy and surgery, Paris, 1743- 1744; began building a surgical and midwifery practice, London; set up an anatomy course, 1746; member of the Company of Surgeons, 1747; temporary man-midwife at the Middlesex Hospital, 1748; man-midwife to the new British Lying-in Hospital, 1749-1759; member of the Society of London Physicians, 1754; licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1756; consultant physician, British Lying-in Hospital, 1759; Physician-Extraordinary to the Queen, 1762; steward, then treasurer, and finally President of the Society of Collegiate Physicians; fellow of the Royal Society, 1767; Professor of Anatomy, Royal Academy of Art, 1768; died, 1783.
James Young Simpson graduated from Edinburgh University in 1832. He was made President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1835 and became Professor of Midwifery there in 1839. He was especially famous for his advocacy and use of chloroform in obstetric practice, but was also renowned for his work in gynaecology and obstetrics, particularly in the use of forceps and for various methods of ovariotomy.
James William Miller was born, 1836; MD, Edinburgh, 1857; licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 1857; examination in medicine and pathology, University of Aberdeen; Medical Officer, Liff and Benvie Poorhouse; physician, Dundee Royal Infirmary; surgeon, Dundee prison; died, 1901.
Thomas Young was born, 1730; MD, University of Edinburgh, 1761; apprenticed as an apothecary and surgeon in Edinburgh, becoming a master surgeon in 1755; joined the Incorporation of Surgeons, 1751; Deacon of the Incorporation of Surgeons, 1756-1762; Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh, 1756-1783; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1762; created a Lying-In Ward at the Royal Infirmary to give clinical lectures which eventually became the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital; died, 1783.
Robert Steavenson was educated at the University of Edinburgh; member of the Medical Society of Edinburgh, 1776; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 1777.
Robert Gell was Surgeon at Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
Alexander Simpson was born in Bathgate, Scotland in 1835. He was the nephew of Sir James Young Simpson, Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh. Simpson studied at Bathgate Academy and later at the University of Edinburgh where in 1856 he received his M.D. He worked for seven years with his uncle in Edinburgh before moving to be a general practitioner in Glasgow. He succeeded to the Chair of Sir James Young Simpson following the latter's death in 1870. In 1872 he married a Miss Barbour. In 1905 he retired at the age of 70, and a year later he was knighted. He was killed in a road accident during a wartime blackout in 1916.
Born, 1883; premedical studies at the London Hospital medical college, 1900; St Mary's Hospital, London, graduated, 1906; assistant in the inoculation department of St Mary's Hospital medical school, 1907; Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, worked on wound infections, first at St Mary's Hospital and later in Almroth Wright's laboratory at no. 13 general hospital in Boulogne, 1914-1918; member of the scientific staff of the Medical Research Council, 1919; St Mary's Hospital, 1922; honorary director of the research laboratories of Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital, 1930-1939; Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps and bacteriological consultant to the British Expeditionary Force, France, 1939-1940; worked on the infection and treatment of burns, 1940; director of the Burns Investigation Unit of the Medical Research Council, first based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and then at the Birmingham Accident Hospital, 1942-1948; honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 1944; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1945; retired, 1948; honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1950; died, 1967.
Robert Milne Murray was born, 1855; read arts in St Andrew's University; moved to Edinburgh to study medicine; staff of the Royal Infirmary and Royal Maternity Hospital; designed a modification of the forceps previously invented by Tarnier; died, 1904.
Arthur Joseph (Joe) Wrigley CBE, MD, FRCS, FRCOG (1904-1984) was educated at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and practised at St Thomas's, beginning his career as registrar to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and later becoming obstetric physician. He also offered his services to Mount Vernon Hospital, the Grosvenor Hospital, the Lambeth Hospital, and to the London boroughs of Lambeth and Stoke Newington. He was a Fellow of the College and inventor of the short forceps - "the Wrigley's". He died in 1984.
The Association of Law Teachers (ALT) was conceived in 1965 by a group of law teachers from institutions other than universities who met at Taplow in Buckinghamshire to discuss the particular problems of teaching law faced by such institutions. The following year a steering committee met in London to officially establish the ALT to represent the growing interest in law in Regional Colleges of Technology, further education colleges and schools. Initial funding came from the publishers Sweet & Maxwell. In its Constitution, the objects of the ALT were laid down as: a) to further the advancement, development, study, understanding, use and reform of the educational aspects of law and its teaching; b) to represent and make known the views of its members upon matters relating to or affecting their professional interests as teachers of law; c) to establish and support or aid in the establishment and support of associations and institutions calculated to benefit the objects of the Association or the members of the Association or the dependants or connections of such members and to subscribe to or guarantee money for charitable or benevolent objects or for any public, general or useful object; d) to do all things consistent with these objects considered by the Association or its Committee to be necessary, conducive or incidental to the promotion of the professional, social or general welfare of its members. The present membership of the ALT is drawn from teachers in higher (largely, but not exclusively, the new universities), further and tertiary education. It focuses primarily on the pedagogy and androgogy of law, teaching and learning methods and assessment, and fosters research in these fields, including the 1993 and 1997 Harris surveys of legal education. Until about 1990 the ALT was the only representative body for Polytechnic law teachers, and in the 1970s and 1980s it also provided a general forum for discussion of doctrinal legal issues. This remains a subsidiary function. The ALT's activities are run by a Committee comprising an elected Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, plus five elected members and some co-opted members. Regular events include the Upjohn Lecture, the Annual Conference and one-day conferences. The ALT makes representations to a variety of official bodies concerning all aspects of law teaching, and is also represented on a number of these bodies. It has close links with the Society of Public Teachers of Law, which represents university law teachers.
Publications: Harris, P and Bellerby, S. with Leighton, P and Hodgson, J, A Survey of Law Teaching 1997 (ALT, 1993); Harris, P and Jones, M, "A Survey of Law Schools in the United Kingdom", (1997), The Law Teacher 38; Dr S B Marsh The Association of Law Teachers: the first 25 years (ALT, 1990); the ALT produces a regular Bulletin and a Journal.
The Council of Legal Education (CLE) was established by Resolutions of the Inns of Court in 1852, following the recommendation that year of a Legal Education Committee of the Four Inns. The CLE, consisting of eight members under the Chairmanship of Richard Bethell QC (later Lord Westbury), was entrusted with the power and duty of superintending the education and examination of students who had been admitted to the Inns and was to consist of an equal number of Benchers appointed by each of the Inns. Five Readerships or Professorships were set up, to each deliver three courses of lectures per year. Students were required to attend a certain number of lectures and to pass public examinations. The examinations were held thrice yearly, in Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity terms. The CLE was given the power to grant dispensations to students unable to attend all required lectures. In 1872 membership of the Council was increased from eight to twenty and a compulsory examination for Call to the Bar was introduced. A further recommendation was made that the Council appoint a Committee of its members to be called the Committee of Education and Examination; this Committee later became the Board of Studies. A Director of Legal Studies was appointed in 1905. The constant increase in the number of students and consequent growth in the CLE's activities led to the Council's decision in 1915 to appoint a permanent Finance (later Finance and Administration) Committee for the regulation of its expenditure and in 1916 to create the post of Council Secretary. The CLE initially met in the Library of Lincoln's Inn. In 1903 it moved to 15 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, where it remained until 1947. The CLE then moved to 7 Stone Buildings, where it was able to provide lecture rooms, common and reading room accommodation and canteen facilities for students. In 1964 the CLE gained the first home for law teaching with premises in Gray's Inn, donated by the Inn. In 1967 the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL) was formally established on the site; it became an incorporated body in 1996. In 1967, as a consequence of the institution of the Senate of the Inns of Court as a central body to represent the Inns, the CLE was reconstituted under regulation of the Senate, which now appointed the Chairman and five other representatives of Council, and which had general policy-making powers. For the first time the CLE had representatives from the Bar Council as well as from the Inns. A new system of education and training, drawn up by the CLE in 1967, was approved by the Senate, to take effect from 1969. This included the appointment of a professional law teacher as Dean of Faculty (later retitled Dean of ICSL), replacing the old position of Director of Legal Studies, and the inauguration of new practical training programmes. In 1974, following the recommendations of the Pearce and Templeman Committee, a new body, the Senate of the Inns of Court and the Bar, was set up. The CLE was reconstituted under the Regulations of the new Senate, and its membership and functions redefined. During the 1970s the CLE faced the major task of implementing the recommendations of the Ormrod Report (of the Lord Chancellor's Committee on Legal Education) and the Cross Committee (Advisory Committee on Legal Education) relating to graduate entry to the profession, and the transfer of Part 1 teaching to the universities and polytechnics. The CLE continued to oversee legal education for the Bar until 1997. In that year the CLE transferred most of its responsibilities and assets to the ICSL. Its responsibility for supporting education and training for the Bar was passed to a new body, the Inns of Court and Bar Educational Trust (ICBET), while its regulatory function was passed to the General Council of the Bar. In 1997 the CLE ceased to operate.
In 1932 a Legal Education Committee under the Chairmanship of Lord Atkin was set up to consider the organisation of legal education in England and to make recommendations as to further provision for advanced research in legal studies. The Committee's report in 1934 included a recommendation that an Institute of Advanced Legal Studies be established in London. In 1938 another Committee, chaired by Lord Macmillan, was set up to find a practical means of effecting this recommendation. The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) was established in 1946 as part of the University of London. Its aims were "the prosecution and promotion of legal research and the training of graduate students in its principles and methods" (39th Annual Report, 1985/86). Since its inception the scope of the Institute has expanded considerably, with sponsorship of and support for many research projects and the provision of facilities for other research bodies and for conferences, seminars and workshops. The Library provides facilities for academic and research staff and postgraduate research students from universities all over the world, and is one of the world's largest legal research libraries. In 1994 IALS became a major component of the School of Advanced Study. The School was established in September 1994. Its fore runner was the University of London Institutes for Advanced Study. The School includes the Institutes of Advanced Legal Studies, Classical Studies, Commonwealth Studies, Germanic Studies, Historical Research, Latin American Studies, Romance Studies, United States Studies and the Warburg Institute. The School gives the Institutes a collective voice in the governance of the University of London, fosters the development of new activities and collective enterprises among Institutes and generally promotes efficiency and effectiveness in the Institutes' missions of supporting and developing research in the humanities and social sciences, nationally and internationally.
For a detailed description of the establishment and development of the Institute see the IALS First Prospectus, 1948, and Willi Steiner (former IALS Librarian), 'The Establishment of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London', IALS Bulletin no. 17, Apr 1994, pp. 6-20.
These files were put together to isolate information of historical interest relating to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Secretary and Librarian undertook the administration of the Institute under the direction of the Committee of Management and was also responsible for building up the library. The position was held by K Howard Drake from 1947 until his death in 1967. He was succeeded by W A F P Steiner. In 1971 the functions were separated, with Steiner continuing as IALS Librarian while administrative duties passed to a new Secretary, J A Boxhall.
The Institute moved into the new building at Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, in December 1975; it was officially opened on 1 April 1976.
These estimates were compiled by the Secretary, primarily J A Boxhall.
Miss Muriel Anderson has been Assistant Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies since 1981.
Dr S B (Stan) Marsh (1926-1998) was a barrister and law teacher. After three and a half years' war service in the Royal Navy he graduated BCom from the University of London in 1949 and DipEd from Leicester University in 1950; he then taught at Leicester College of Technology from 1950-1956. During this time he obtained his LL.B from the University of London, and was called to the Bar of Gray's Inn in 1958. He was Head of the Commerce Department at Peterborough Technical College from 1956-1958 and Head of the Department of Business and Secretarial Studies at Manchester College of Commerce in 1958. From the latter Department grew the Department of Law, subsequently incorporated into Manchester Polytechnic. Dr Marsh's first foray into research in legal education was his thesis for a higher degree, for which he was awarded a PhD at Leicester University in 1956. This research was later continued in association with Professor John Wilson of Southampton University and then with Dr Julia Bailey, then lecturing at Manchester. Dr Marsh served as a member of the Lord Chancellor's Committee on Legal Education (the Ormrod Committee) and the Advisory Committee on Legal Education set up by the Inns of Court and the Law Society. He was the founding Chairman of the Association of Law Teachers from 1965-1967 and President from 1989-1996. Publications: The Association of Law Teachers; the First 25 Years (ALT, 1990).
The Society for Advanced Legal Studies (SALS), established in 1997, is the successor body to the Friends of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS). The Friends was established in 1989 to foster the interests of the IALS which holds what is in effect the UK's national law library and which is at the centre of legal research. SALS is a learned society consisting of scholars, practitioners and those involved in the administration of justice from the UK and around the world. Its objectives are to promote and facilitate legal research at an advanced level and in particular to engender greater collaboration between scholars and those involved in the practice of law. The Society seeks to achieve these objectives through a number of initiatives including organising and supporting specialised working groups, lectures and conferences. The Constitution of the SALS provides for an Advisory Council of persons drawn from academia, practitioners and the judiciary from the UK and overseas. During its first year there is a transitional executive committee, chaired by the Director of IALS, and an interim advisory council.
The Society of Public Teachers of Law (SPTL) was founded in 1908 by Dr Edward Jenks, the then Principal and Director of Studies of the Law Society. Rule 2 of the Society states that "The objects of the society shall be the furtherance of the cause of legal education in England and Wales, and of the work and interests of public teachers of law therein by holding discussions and enquiries, by publishing documents, and by taking other steps as may from time to time be deemed desirable" (see A.SPTL 6: List of Members and Rules 1910 p.9). The Society was to consist of a) ordinary members (any public teacher of law in England and Wales) and b) honorary members (any past teacher of law, overseas teacher of law or person who has "conferred important benefits on the Society or on legal education") (Ibid. Rule 6, p.11). The Society's affairs were to be managed by a General Committee, whose officers were to consist of a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Honorary Secretary. Other Committee members were to comprise one member for each university conferring degrees in law, and one member for each body conferring professional qualifications in law. Thus all branches of legal education would be represented. Since its inception, the SPTL has acted to improve the quality of legal education and research through publishing reports, setting up working parties, putting forward submissions, holding conferences and producing journals and newsletters on matters relevant to legal education. Its representation on the different law teaching bodies in England and Wales has meant that it has operated with great effectiveness as a pressure group for change.
In 2002 the Society of Public Teachers of Law was renamed as the Society of Legal Scholars. Further information about the Society can be found in Fiona Cownie and Raymond Cocks. "A Great and Noble Occupation!": The History of the Society of Legal Scholars. Hart Publishing, 2009 (available in the IALS Library and as SPTL 25/10)
William Lawrence Twining (b 1934) has had a long and distinguished career in law teaching and has been involved in many projects relating to legal education. He was educated at Charterhouse School, Brasenose College, Oxford, and the University of Chicago. He has been Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Khartoum (1958-1961), Senior Lecturer in Law at University College, Dar-es-Salaam (1961-1965), Professor of Jurisprudence at the Queen's University, Belfast (1965-1972) and Professor of Law at the University of Warwick (1972-1982). From 1983-1996 he was the Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London. Other activities have included membership of the Committee on Legal Education in Northern Ireland (1972-1974), presidency of the Society of Public Teachers of Law (1978-1979) and of the UK Society for Legal and Social Philosophy (1980-1983), chairmanship of the Bentham Committee (1982-) and of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (1983-1993).
Publications: How to do things with rules with David Miers (1976); editor of Law publishing and legal information: small jurisdictions of the British Isles with Jennifer Uglow (1981); Theories of evidence: Bentham and Wigmore (c1985); editor of Legal theory and common law (1986); editor of Essays on Kelsen with Richard Tur (1986); editor of Learning lawyers' skills with Neil Gold and Karl Mackie (1989); editor of Access to legal education and the legal profession with Rajeev Dhavan and Neil Kibble (1989); Rethinking evidence: exploratory essays (1990); editor of Issues of self-determination (1991); Analysis of evidence: how to do things with facts with Terence Anderson (1991); editor of Evidence and proof with Alex Stein (1992); joint editor of Legal Records in the Commonwealth with Emma Varnden Quick (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1994); Blackstone's tower: the English law school (1994); Law in context: enlarging a discipline (1997); edited the Law in Context series and the Jurists' series.
Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, 1913; moved to Brentford, c1919; enrolled as a full-time student at the Engineering School, Regent Street Polytechnic, 1927; participated in sporting activities there; gained a Ordinary National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, 1930; employed in engineering; continued part-time education at Acton Technical College; Higher National Diploma, 1934; married Mary Eileen Senton, 1937; graduate member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, 1939; associate member, 1940; served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, later Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, during World War Two; in India, 1942-1945; emigrated to Australia, 1951; retired, 1974; moved to New Zealand, 1982.
Leslie William Alfred Baily was born in 1906; worked as a broadcaster and writer and died in 1976.
Savile Row and its environs, behind Regent Street, were renowned for their bespoke tailoring businesses. Boulter, Hepburn and Watts was apparently succeeded by Hogg, Sons & J B Johnstone Ltd; both companies had premises on Clifford Street (nos 10 and 19 respectively). The firm started in 1820 by John Brown Johnstone of Lockerbie, Scotland, developed as a civil and military tailors and was purchased from Johnstone's descendant by John Donaldson-Hudson in the 1940s. It acquired the firm of Hogg & Sons in the 1950s, and closed in 1999. The relationship with Tautz & Co Ltd (civil and sporting tailors, established in 1807), which had premises at no 19 Grafton Street, is unclear.
The philanthropist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) was convinced of the health-giving and character-building qualities derived from organised sport, and was himself a keen footballer. He saw sport as an integral part of the work of his foundation, the Youths' Christian Institute, and its successors the Young Men's Christian Institute and Polytechnic Institute, later Regent Street Polytechnic. Hogg's friend Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird (1847-1923, 11th Baron Kinnaird) was a famous gentleman footballer and President of the Football Association, who with Hogg organised the first unofficial England-Scotland international matches. The two had played together at Eton at a period when the game, until then limited to public schools playing to their own rules, was first being organised. On leaving school, both continued to play for the Wanderers, a team of public school old boys which won five of the first seven FA cup finals. Kinnaird was involved with Hogg's charitable foundations and retained his connection with their football teams. Hogg's Institute encompassed members who were not students, but were involved in its other activities.
The first Institute football club was formed in 1875 as the Hanover Football Club, for which Hogg and Kinnaird both played. Following the removal of Hogg's foundation to premises in Regent Street, formerly home of the Royal Polytechnic Institution, in 1882, the club became the Polytechnic Football Club. It had grounds in Barnes and Wimbledon but in 1906 moved to the Polytechnic's Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground at Chiswick. The club continues to play there as a member of the Southern Amateur League.
Members of the Polytechnic founded by Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) and its predecessors had visited his homes, including Holly Hill in Hampshire, for holidays, but increasing numbers meant that this became impractical. In 1886 trips for members were arranged to Switzerland and Boulogne. In 1888 a party of boys from the Polytechnic School toured Belgium and Switzerland to see the mountains they were learning about in geography lessons. In 1889 arrangements were made for Polytechnic parties to visit the Paris Exhibition. Cruises to Norway began in 1892. In 1893 the Director of Education Robert Mitchell (1855-1933) acquired chalets by Lake Lucerne which were to become the most famous centre for the Polytechnic Touring Association. A notable achievement was the organisation of a series of trips to Chicago to see the World's Fair in 1893: more than 1,000 people made the month-long journey. By 1894 the total number of persons participating in Continental tours exceeded 3,000, increasing to 12,000 by 1903. The steam yacht Ceylon was purchased in 1896 for cruises of the Norwegian fjords. Polytechnic employees acted as guides. The trips pioneered cheaper travel, making it accessible to less affluent travellers, and the Touring Association, organising trips in Britain and overseas and attracting customers from among non-Polytechnic members, became a substantial business. Its office was adjacent to the main entrance of the Regent Street Polytechnic building. The tours were initially organised within the general administration of the Polytechnic, though after the Scheme of Administration in 1891, there was pressure from the auditors to separate out the accounts and administration. Robert Mitchell remained the driving force until after World War One. The continued expansion of the firm after 1918 was due largely to the leadership of Cmdr Ronald G Studd: when he left the Navy in 1921 his father, Sir Kynaston Studd, President of the Polytechnic, invited him to take over the management of the tours. He did this very successfully, expanding the range of tours to include southern Europe. When the Creative Tourist Agents Conference was formed, Studd became chair. In the 1960s the concern was taken over by the firm of Henry Lunn Ltd to form the travel retailer Lunn Poly.