Mary Pyne appears to have trained at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing, and worked at Westminster Hospital, London.
Katherine Monk was born on 2 Jan 1855. She commenced nursing at the Hospital for Incurables, Edinburgh, in 1874, and attended nursing lectures and classes at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1878, she became a Probationer Nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, obtaining the Certificate of Proficiency in 1879. She undertook private nursing at St Bartholomew's Hospital for a number of years, before taking up the post of Night Sister at King's College and Charing Cross Hospitals, both of which were under the direction of the Sisterhood of St John's, in 1883. Later that same year, Monk was appointed Ward Sister at Charing Cross Hospital. In 1884 she was appinted Sister Matron at King's College Hospital.
Monk resigned from King's College Hospital in July 1885 in consequence of the difficulties between the St John's Nurses and the Hospital authorities. With the withdrawal of the Sisterhood of St John's House for King's, Monk was again appointed as Sister Matron, commencing on 5 Aug 1885. She quickly introduced new nursing staff to the hospital, reorganised the Nursing Department and founded the Training School for Nurses.
Monk was a founding member of the Committee of the Royal Pension Fund for Nurses, inaugurated in 1887, and was also one of two Civil Matron's appointed on Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Advisory Board for the improvement and reorganization of Military Hosptials. She was Also appointed to the Council of the Red Cross Society.
She took an active role in the work of the KCH Building Committee of the new Hospital, 1904. However, following a severe illness in 1905, she resigned as Sister Matron and left King's in May 1906. She died on 20 Feb 1916, at Southampton.
The Monk Memorial Prize Fund was raised as a memorial. It is awarded to the nurse who obtains first place in the examinations of nursing staff.
Miss Clara Sibbald Peddie, daughter of Dr Alexander Peddie of Edinburgh, was appointed as Home Sister, Apr 1888, having trained at the Nightingale School of St Thomas's Hospital. Sister Sibbald was superintendent of the Nurses' Home. She died suddenly following and operation in 1895.
Rampton entered King's College Hospital. London, for nurse training, Aug 1939, having some previous experience as a probationer nurse at Paddington Green Convalescent Home.
Eva Veneer worked as a Secretary to an Insurance Broker for eleven years prior to undertaking nursing training at King's College Hospital, London, which she entered in 1940.
Brown was born on 17 Feb 1924. She was educated at private schools, 1929-1937, and Wimbledon High School, 1937-1941. She trained as a Registered Sick Children's Nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, 1942-1945; undertook general nurse training at King's College Hospital (KCH), London, 1947-1949; and was registered as a Nurse Tutor by the Royal College of Nursing, 1957.
Brown worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital as a staff nurse; in private wards, 1945-1947; as Ward Sister, 1950-1955; and Nurse Tutor, 1957-1961. During 1961-1962, she was employed as an Officer in the Hospitals Department of the Royal College of Nursing, London, and from 1962-1969 was Secretary of this department. Appointed Sister Matron (later Chief Nursing Officer) of KCH in 1970, retiring in 1982. Died 1990.
Buffard trained at The Queen's Hospital for Children, Hackney, 1908-1911, and King's College Hospital, 1911-1914, and obtained General Nursing Council registration in 1922. She joined the Territorial Army Nursing Service, serving in Malta, and France and Germany during World War One. After the war, she returned to work at King's College Hospital. She died on 14 Nov 1984.
St Thomas's Hospital has its origins in a small infirmary attached to the Augustinian Priory of St Mary the Virgin (St Mary Overie), which was destroyed by fire in 1212. The infirmary assumed the name of St Thomas the Martyr shortly after his canonization in 1173. After its destruction by fire the hospital was re-endowed by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, as a separate foundation independent of the Priory and administered by its own Master. It was built at the south end of London Bridge on a site occupied by the hospital from 1215 to 1862. In the early fifteenth century a new ward of eight beds was paid for by the Lord Mayor, Richard ('Dick') Whittington.
During the Reformation in 1540 the hospital, along with many other religious foundations, was dispossessed of its revenues and closed. The abolition of the religious houses deprived the poor of their chief source of relief, and the citizens of London presented a petition to Henry VIII. The King died before his intention to restore the hospital was carried out, and it was his son Edward VI who restored St Thomas's estates and revenues. The hospital re-opened with 120 beds and three Barber Surgeons, assisted by apprentices, were appointed, possibly marking the beginning of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. A royal charter of 1553 made the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of London perpetual Governors of King's Hospital, as it was known for a time before becoming St Thomas's Hospital.
The hospital underwent an extensive building programme between 1693 and 1709, and about 300 beds were provided. Medical education was also formalised at this time, with regulations introduced to control the entry of pupils into the hospital. Students were educated on the wards long before this time. A record of one of the apprentices of a surgeon at St Thomas's appears in 1561. By the second half of the seventeenth century surgeons at the hospital were accepting the apprentices of other surgeons for short periods of tuition within the hospital. These students were the forerunners of dressers, and problems with their discipline and uncertainty over their status led to the formulation of some basic regulations to control the entry of students into the hospital. Surgeons were restricted to taking three dressers each, but this was frequently broken, and the number increased to four. The physicians at the hospital had some pupils, though a fewer number than the surgeons. From about the early 18th century the Hospital Apothecary also apprenticed pupils. Guy's Hospital opened in the grounds of St Thomas's in 1725, and lectures, wards and operations were attended by the students of both hospitals. In 1768 the arrangement was formalised and continued until Guy's established its own medical school in 1825.
Until the mid nineteenth century there were three types of student attending the medical school, the surgeons' apprentices and dressers, dressers who had served an apprenticeship elsewhere and completing their training with a particular surgeon, and pupils, who were not attached to any particular surgeon. Pupils first appeared in 1723, and tended to be on the periphery of surgical procedures. Their numbers were unrestricted and they paid smaller fees than dressers. All students were able to attend the courses of lectures provided by the teaching staff at the hospitals and dissection classes. The study of anatomy was the most prestigious course offered at St Thomas's. William Cheseldon, one of the most important and influential anatomists of the eighteenth century, was surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital from 1719 to 1738 and gave lectures from 1714. Other influential medical teachers included George Fordyce, who was Physician from 1770 to 1802, Henry Cline, Surgeon, from 1784 to 1812 and Sir Astley Paston Cooper, lecturer from 1797 to 1825. New accommodation for dissection classes was provided in 1814, and allowed up two hundred students at a time to practice dissection. Other courses offered to students after the unification of the medical schools included chemistry, materia medica, physiology and midwifery. A broadly based syllabus of medical lectures was delivered by William Saunders, Physician at Guy's Hospital, from about 1770. Students were also able to attend courses offered by the recognised private schools of medicine, notably the Windmill Street school, run by Samuel Sharp and later William and John Hunter, Joshua Brookes' Theatre of Anatomy in Blenheim Street and the Webb Street School of Anatomy and Medicine.
The popularity and influence of the medical schools led to the building of new facilities at St Thomas's Hospital. New accommodation was opened in 1814, and comprised a museum, laboratory, library, dissection room and large lecture theatre. A dispute over the appointment of the successor to the Surgeon Astley Cooper led to Guy's Hospital establishing its own medical school in 1825. St Thomas's lost several lecturers, and the popularity of Astley Cooper at Guy's and the establishment of new teaching hospitals in London such as King's College led to a period of decline for St Thomas's medical school. The school continued to offer lectures on a wide variety of subjects and provide regular clinical training, but falling student rolls and therefore income from fees hampered long term development and planning. After 1825 students of surgeons continued to attend operations at both hospitals, until a disagreement amongst the students in 1836 sparked off a riot in the operating theatre at St Thomas's and the arrangement ended. In 1842 the Hospital Governors stepped in to rationalise and improve the status of the medical school, and took over the management for the next sixteen years. A medical school fund was established and administered by the Hospital Treasurer to pay for the general running costs of the school, including the salaries of the non-teaching staff. A Medical School Committee was created to govern the school, appoint lecturers and oversee expenditure. The first Dean, Dr Henry Burton, was appointed in 1849. In 1858, management of the school was restored to the physicians and surgeons and in 1860 to the teaching staff, as the school had become self-financing.
In 1866 the extension of the railway from London Bridge to Charing Cross forced the Hospital to move to a temporary site at Newington. A site at Stangate in Lambeth, at the foot of Westminster Bridge, was bought from the Metropolitan Board of Works for ?95,000. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the new building in 1868, which was also opened by her in 1871. The new building was designed by Henry Currey to take 588 beds. The plan was supported by Florence Nightingale, who had chosen St Thomas's as the hospital in which to found her training school for nurses. The new accommodation and new teaching staff, including Charles Murchison, Physician to the hospital from 1871 to 1879, heralded a good start for the new medical school. However, by 1892 most of the teaching staff had left and the new student intake was only forty-three. The enlargement of facilities at the school helped revive the school's reputation, and by 1900 student numbers were improving and increased rapidly.
St Thomas's Hospital and Medical School were seriously disrupted by the second world war. The hospital's status as a casualty clearance station, with sixteen wards closed and a limited out-patients' service meant that clinical teaching was impossible. Students were dispersed among other London hospitals and the pre-clinical school went to Wadham College, Cambridge. By March 1940 the anticipated aerial bombing had not taken place, and the medical school had reformed, the out-patients' service resumed and 250 civilian beds opened at Lambeth. However bombing raids in the Autumn severely damaged the hospital. Arrangements were made to move staff and patients to a hutted hospital at Hydestile, near Godalming, which had previously been occupied by Australian troops. By 1943 St Thomas's Hospital comprised 184 beds at the London site, 334 in Hydesville and 50 maternity beds in Woking. By the end of the war four ward buildings, three operating theatres, most accommodation for nurses and a large section of the out-patients department had been destroyed.
With the establishment of the National Health Service the medical school became a separate corporate body in 1948 and one of the general medical schools of the University of London. In 1949 the school accepted its first female medical student. The annual intake of students continued to increase throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Since the end of the second world war to the 1970s there has been almost continuous redevelopment of the site. In 1982 the medical schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals reunited as the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS). The new institution was then enlarged by the amalgamation of the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery with Guy's Dental School on 1 August 1983 and the addition on the Institute of Dermatology on 1 August 1985. In 1990 King's College London began discussions with the United Schools and, following formal agreement to merge in 1992 and the King's College London Act 1997, the formal merger with UMDS took place on 1 August 1998. The merger created three new schools: the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Schools of Medicine, of Dentistry and of Biomedical Sciences, and reconfigured part of the former School of Life, Basic Medical & Health Sciences as the new School of Health & Life Sciences.
Cholera was endemic in London during the nineteenth century, and epidemics were a regular feature of life. The first outbreak of Asiatic cholera in Britain was at Sunderland on the Durham coast during the Autumn of 1831. From there the disease made its way northward into Scotland and southward toward London, claiming 52,000 lives.
In 1842 the Governors of St Thomas's Hospital stepped in to rationalise and improve the medical school's status, taking responsibility for the management of the school until 1858. The School's finances and administration was radically re-organised. A medical school fund was established and administered by the Hospital Treasurer to pay for the general running costs of the school, including the salaries of the non-teaching staff. A Medical School Committee was created to govern the school, appoint lecturers and oversee expenditure. The first Dean, Dr Henry Burton, was appointed in 1849, and the School began to take on a formal corporate identity. In 1858, management of the school was restored to the physicians and surgeons and in 1860 to the teaching staff, as the school had become self-financing. With the establishment of the National Health Service the medical school became a separate corporate body in 1948 and one of the general medical schools of the University of London.
The papers comprise a miscellany of correspondence collected by and donated to St Thomas's Hospital Medical School Library. Letters relating to St Thomas's Hospital Choir, deposited at St Thomas' Hospital Library, by Dr H J Wallace, 1977.
William Miller Ord was born on 23 September 1834; the son of George Ord, FRCS, and his wife Harriet (nee Clark). He was educated at St Thomas's Hospital London. Awarded MD London; FRCP, FLS. Ord was Consulting Physician St Thomas's Hospital; Treasurer of the Clinical Society; Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. He married firstly in 1859, Julia Rainbow (died 1864), and secondly Jane Youl. He died on 14 May 1902.
Publications: Influence of Colloids upon Crystalline Forms, 1879; edited the Works of Francis Sibson, 1881; various papers on "Myxodema" (including the Bradshawe Lecture, 1898); Neurotic Dystrophies; Notes on Comparative Anatomy, 1871; papers on Neurotic Origin of Gout; The Relations of Arthritis; Lettsomian Oration; A Doctor's Holiday (oration to Medical Society, 1894); an edition of Nomenclature of Diseases, 1884; and many others.
William Wallis Ord was born in 1869, the son of William Miller Ord and his wife Julie nee Rainbow. He was a student at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, 1883-1887. Awarded MA, MD BCh Oxon, MRCP London, OBE.
Born Harold Munro Fuchs in 1889; educated at Brighton College and Caius College, Cambridge University; worked at the Plymouth [Marine Biology] Laboratory, 1911-1912; Lecturer in Zoology, Imperial College, University of London, 1913-1914; served World War One, 1914-1918, with the Army Service Corps in Egypt, Salonika, Greece, the Balkan Peninsula and Palestine; changed name to Fox, 1914; Lecturer in Biology, Government School of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt, 1919-1923; Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, 1920-1928; Balfour Student, Cambridge University, 1924-1927; leader of zoological expedition to study the fauna of the Suez Canal, Egypt, 1924; Editor of Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1926-[1967]; Professor of Zoology, Birmingham University, 1927-1941; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1937; Professor of Zoology, Bedford College, University of London, 1941-1954; Honorary President, London Natural History Society, 1950-; President, International Union of Biological Sciences, 1950-1953; Fullarian Professor of Physiology, Royal Institution, 1953-1956; Emeritus Professor, 1954; Fellow and Research Associate, Queen Mary College, University of London; retired 1954; Président d'Honneur, Zoological Society of France, 1955; Gold Medallist, Linnean Society of London, 1959; Darwin Medallist of the Royal Society, 1966; died 1967.
Publications: Biology: an introduction to the study of life (University Press, Cambridge, 1932); Blue blood in animals, and other essays in biology (Routledge and Sons, London, 1928); Selene, or sex and the moon (Kegan Paul, London, 1928); The personality of animals (Penguin Books, Harmonsworth, New York, 1940); The nature of animal colours (Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1960); assisted with the biology sections of Elementary Science (University Press, Cambridge, 1935).
Born 1885; educated privately, Royal Holloway College, 1904, and University of London, graduating in 1907; Fellowship to Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, USA, 1908-1909; Assistant Mistress in History, Cheltenham Ladies College, Gloucestershire, 1909-1912; Assistant Lecturer, 1912-1919, and Staff Lecturer, 1919-1921, in History, Royal Holloway College, University of London; Pfeiffer Research Fellow, 1921-1926, and Lecturer in History, 1926-1929, Girton College, Cambridge University; Lecturer in History, Cambridge University, 1930-1948; Director of Studies in History and Law, and Vice-Mistress, Cambridge University, 1944-1948; elected to the British Academy, 1945; Zemurray Radcliffe Professor of History, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA, 1948-1954; President, International Commission for the History of Assemblies of Estates, 1949-1960; CBE, 1947; retired 1954; Vice-President Selden Society, 1962-1965; Vice President, 1958, and Honorary Vice-President, 1963-1968, Royal Historical Society; Fellow of the Medieval Academy of Arts and Sciences; Honorary Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford University, 1964; active member of the Cambridge Labour Party and Trades Council; died 1968.
Publications: A guide for novel readers (Y.W.C.A., London, 1920); Album Helen Maud Cam (Publications universitaires de Louvain, Louvain, 1960); England before Elizabeth (Hutchinson's University Library, London, 1950); Historical novels (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1961); Law as it looks to a historian: Founders' Memorial Lecture, Girton College, 18 February, 1956 (W Heffer and Sons, Cambridge, 1956); Law-finders and law-makers in medieval England: collected studies in legal and constitutional history (Merlin Press, London, 1962); Liberties and communities in Medieval England: collected studies in local administration and topography (University Press, Cambridge, 1944); Local government in Francia and England: a comparison of the local administration and jurisdiction of the Carolingian Empire with that of the West Saxon Kingdom (University of London Press, London, 1912); Studies in the Hundred Rolls: some aspects of thirteenth century administration (Oxford, 1921); The Hundred and the Hundred Rolls: an outline of local government in Medieval England (Methuen and Co, London, 1930); The legislators of Medieval England (Geoffrey Cumberlege, London, [1946]); What of the Middle Ages is still alive in England today? (Athlone Press, London, [1961]); Zachary Nugent Brooke, 1883-1946 (Geoffrey Cumberlege, London, [1949]); Bibliography of English constitutional history (G. Bell and Sons, London, 1929); editor Crown, community and parliament in the later Middle Ages: studies in English constitutional history (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1951); editor Studies in manorial history (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1938); introduction to Selected historical essays of F. W. Maitland (University Press, Cambridge, 1957).
Born 1891; educated Armstrong College, Durham University, gaining his BSc in 1912; 1851 Exhibitioner, Kristiania University, Norway, 1914-1915; gained MSc at Armstrong College, 1916; served World War One, 1914-1918, as Capt, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1917-1919; Lecturer in Geology, Armstrong College, 1919-1921; Head of Geology Department, 1921-1956, and Professor of Geology, 1928-1956, Bedford College, University of London; awarded the Lyell Fund by the Geological Society of London, 1927; Secretary, 1934-1942, and President, 1954-1957, Geological Society of London; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1952; President, Mineralogical Society, 1954-1957; Murchison Medallist, 1946; Wollaston Medallist, 1962, Geological Society of London; Emeritus Professor, 1956; retired, [1956]; Fellow of Bedford College, 1971; died 1981.
Publications: Geology and time (University of Nottingham, Nottingham, 1953); Iceland (Geographical Handbook Series, London, 1942).
Professor of Chemistry, Bedford College, University of London, 1949-1970; Emeritus Professor, 1970; retired 1970; died 1985.
Educated at Oxford University and Trinity College, Dublin; taught English and Germanic Philosophy at Royal Holloway College, University of London, 1899-1915, being a Senior Staff Lecturer from 1905; Secretary of the Staff, Royal Holloway College; Director of Studies of English and Philology, Girton College, Cambridge, 1915; died 1951.
Publications: Henryson: selected fables (Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1930); editor of The Middle English poem, Erthe upon Erthe, printed from twenty-four manuscripts (London, 1911).
Born London, 28 November 1926, but spent her earliest years in Russia where her father went to work; graduated in 1948 with an External London BSc in Zoology taken at University College, Leicester; studied marine worms in the Isle of Man and was awarded her PhD from the University of Liverpool; moved, in 1952, to Royal Holloway College as Assistant Lecturer in the newly opened Zoology Department; promoted to Lecturer in 1957 and retired in 1991 as Reader in Ecology, a University of London appointment which she had held since 1976; her research was concerned with plankton living in the reservoirs situated around Staines and she supervised investigations into the fauna of the slow sand filters through which London's drinking water is purified; her data has been incorporated into increasingly refined models of how reservoir ecosystems work; pioneer in the use of echo-sounding to measure fish populations, equipment now used routinely by the Environment Agency; with a botanical colleague, she started a BSc Ecology degree at a time when only three such degrees were taught in the UK. At the time of Dr Duncan's death, she was the initiator and principal coordinator of a complex project funded by the EU which embraced numerous colleagues from three European and three SE Asian countries; worked extensively in Europe, Africa and the USA; maintained a lifelong association with socialism and eastern Europe, maintaining communications across the Iron Curtain; after her formal retirement Duncan remained active in research as Emeritus Reader in Ecology and Leader of the Hydroacoustic Unit at the Royal Holloway Institute of Environmental Research; died 3 October 2000.
The Staff Meeting was established in 1889 in order to discuss matters relating to teaching in the College. It originally discussed and settled the work of each student individually but this became impossible as student numbers increased. It also considered examinations and scholarships but had no power in policy-making. Meetings were usually held at least once a term, although sometimes they met more than this and sometimes less. The meeting consisted of the Principal and between 8-12 members of the Academic staff. In 1912 the Governors constituted the Academic Board which took over the functions of the Staff Meeting. It was to be composed of the Principal and senior members of staff and was to meet at least once a term. The Academic Board had the power to make recommendations to the Governors on all academic matters but did not have any executive duties. The Royal Holloway College Act (1949) stated that the Board should contain the Principal (as Chairman), all Professors of the University of London who taught at the College, and Heads of Department. It was able to regulate its own procedures and the conduct of its business, and was (with the approval of the Council) able to make standing orders for that purpose.
The Trustees were three men who were given control of the College estate, property and picture collection. The first Trustees were appointed by Thomas Holloway in 1876 and were thereafter appointed by the Board of Governors as and when a new vacancy arose. The Trustees themselves also served as Governors.
In 1949, the Royal Holloway College Act altered the way in which the College was governed and as a result, responsibility for the estate and College property was transferred to the Council. The role of Trustee was thereafter terminated.
Various unofficial records collated by members of Royal Holloway College on an ad-hoc basis.
Egon Sharpe Pearson was born in Hampstead, London, in 1895, the middle child of Karl Pearson and his wife Maria Sharpe. He was educated at Winchester College and Cambridge University, graduating in 1920 and joined his father's Department of Applied Statistics at University College London in 1921 becoming assistant editor of Biometrika, the statistical journal co-founded by Karl Pearson, in 1924. In 1933 Pearson succeeded his father as Head of Department at UCL; three years later, when Karl Pearson died, he also became Managing Editor of Biometrika.
In 1930, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS). During a visit to the USA in 1931, Pearson met Walter Shewart of the Bell Telephone Laboratory with whom he discussed quality control in industry. The following year he presented a paper to the RSS on industrial applications of statistics which led directly to the formation of the Industrial and Agricultural Research Section (IARS) of the Society. He was on the Council of the RSS from 1934 to 1951, serving as Vice-President in 1945/6 and again in 1947/8 and was elected President for 1955-1957.
He married in 1934 and had two children; his wife died in 1949. Pearson died in 1980.
George Field: born, Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire in about 1777; educated at St Peter's School, Berkhampstead; experimented with the application of chemistry to pigments and dyes; successfully cultivated madder, (a plant cultivated for dye); invented a 'physeter' or percolator acting by air pressure to produce coloured lakes or pigments; awarded the Society of Arts' gold Isis medal for the percolator, 1816, (the apparatus is described by in Society of Arts Transactions, xxxiv pp 87-94); continued to work on preparing colours for use by artists; other inventions included a metrochrome and conical lenses; died, Isleworth, Middlesex, 1854.
Publications: Chromatics; or, an Essay on the analogy and harmony of colours (Newman, London, 1817); Chromatography, or, A treatise on colours and pigments, and of their powers in painting (London, 1835); Ethics; or, the analogy of the Moral Sciences indicated; Outlines of Analogical Philosophy, being a primary view of the principles, relations and purposes of Nature, Science, and Art 2 vols (London, 1839); Rudiments of the Painter's Art: or, a Grammar of Colouring (London, 1850); Tritogenea, or, A brief outline of the universal system; Dianoia. The third Organon attempted, or, Elements of Logic and subjective philosophy; Aesthetics, or, the analogy of the sensible sciences indicated: with an appendix on light and colors; The analogy of the physical sciences indicated; Society of Arts Transactions, xxxiv pp 87-94.
Dealer of the Independent Gallery; Samuel Courtauld's principal adviser, and central in the acquisition of many of his paintings; died c1950. Publications: Millet ... Illustrated with eight reproductions in colour ([1910]); Van Dyck ... Illustrated with eight reproductions in colour ([1908]); Stories of the French Artists from Clouet to Delacroix collected and arranged by P M Turner [chapters 1-17] and Charles Henry Collins Baker [chapters 18-30] (Chatto & Windus, London, 1909); The Appreciation of Painting ... With illustrations (Selwyn & Blount, London,1921).
Born in Birkenhead, 1860; moved to Whitchurch near Ross-on-Wye, 1864; educated at home by a governess; preparatory school at Whitchurch, 1871-1875; Hereford Cathedral School, 1875-1877; Gloucester School of Art; Académie Julian in Paris, 1882; École des Beaux-Arts, 1883; pictures hung at the Royal Academy, 1883-1885; returned to England and worked on a series of paintings beginning at Walberswick, Suffolk; supporter and constant exhibitor at the New English Art Club; taught at the Slade School of Fine Art [1895]-1930; began to work increasingly with water-colours from about 1900; honorary member of the Liverpool Academy of Arts, 1906; Order of Merit, 1931; died in Chelsea, 1931; his work is found, amongst others, in the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, the Welsh National Museum, Cardiff.
In 1942 the Royal College of Physicians of London (RCP) and the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSENG) met together and agreed to ask the RCOG to co-operate to form a Standing Joint Committee of the three Royal Colleges. The Committee initially met each month to discuss matters of mutual interest, particularly the training of consultants; the three College presidents alternated as chairman.
The first Memorandum and Articles of Association of the College were approved on 13 September 1929. The first royal charter was granted in 1947, with a supplemental charter in 1948. Further amendments were made to the charter, articles of association, ordinances and by-laws in 1963, 1971, 1979, 1984 and 1999.
A Clinical Effectiveness Support Unit (CESU) was set up as a new department of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in June 1999 to co-ordinate the College's many existing clinical governance and educational activities. It was renamed the National Collaborating Centre for Women's Health and Children's Health (NCC-WCH) in 2001. The NCC-WHC's main functions are as follows: production of at least two evidence-based guidelines per year, completion of two national audits in obstetrics and gynaecology per year, co-ordination and support of the clinical effectiveness programme within the College, liaison with relevant related activities, including the confidential enquiries into infant and maternal deaths (CESDI and CEMD), consideration of further developments, particularly accreditation of services and consumer issues. The NCC-WHC produces two types of Guidelines: National Evidence-based Guidelines, funded by the National Institute for Clinical Evidence (NICE) covering all aspects of a particular area of clinical practice e.g. infertility, electronic fetal monitoring, induction of labour, and Green-Top Guidelines, funded by the College and comprising brief evidence-based statements on topical and controversial issues to assist clinicians in their decision making about appropriate health care. The NCC-WHC services three College committees: Clinical Effectiveness Standards Board (CESB), Guideline and Audit Sub-committee (GASC), a sub-committee of CESB and Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).
Special working groups or ad hoc committees and sub-committees were set up at various times, usually by Council or the Finance and Executive Committee, to investigate and report on particular issues of concern to the College. Servicing the working groups and committees is currently the responsibility of the College's Administration Department.
The working party was established by the College in July 1980 in order "To consider developments in further specialisation within the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, including training implications, and to make recommendations" (minutes 6 Nov 1980: ref M12/1). The working party first met in November 1980. It presented its report to Council in 1982. The report was published as a discussion document in November 1982.
The working party first met on 16 July 1993; the Chairman was Professor M J Whittle, Professor of Fetal Medicine at the University of Birmingham. Representatives from the General Practitioners and Midwifery Service were present, also other Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologists. The terms of reference were: a) To consider and develop suggestions made by the British Paediatric Association (BPA)/RCOG Joint Standing Committee regarding facilities required for childbirth in different settings. b) To define minimum standards of staffing, facilities and organisation in each setting for the guidance of managers, clinical directors and health professionals.
This committee was established in 1959 under the chairmanship of H J Malkin to define the general principles to be followed in the building of maternity units. It reported in May 1960.
This sub-committee was established by Council, under the chairmanship of J Malvern, in November 1980. Its terms of reference were "to enquire into all matters relating to manpower in training and career posts in obstetrics and gynaecology in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland and to advise the Council on policies with regard to numbers and distribution of training posts" (1983 report, p. 5 in M32/1). In 1982 the committee presented a preliminary report to Council defining the current state of manpower in the British Isles; a second, published report was produced in 1983. This committee may be seen as a precursor to the RCOG's Manpower (later Medical Workforce) Advisory Committee, which was established in 1988.
The working party met throughout 1984 and 1985 and their report was published in May 1987. The required information was collected through the use of questionnaires, letters and verbal evidence. The Chairman was Mrs W J A Francis FRCOG.
The working party was instituted by the Council of the RCOG in 1989 to review the education and services related to contraception in view of the continuing high rate of unplanned pregnancy. It reported in September 1991.
The RCOG undertook a survey of obstetric flying squads in 1980 in order to discover what care was provided for obstetric emergencies arising in the community where pre-admission examination or treatment has been considered advisable.
The working party was set up by Council on the recommendation of the RCOG's Examination Committee in 1991 under the chairmanship of Professor W Dunlop. Its terms of reference were "to consider the need for change in the current system of assessment leading to the award of MRCOG; to define the educational objectives upon which assessment should be based, and to suggest revision of the current system of assessment and to make recommendations on the implementation of this revision". It reported to Council in 1991.
The working party was established in 1995, following discussions with the Department of Health, with the following terms of reference: 1) 'To identify current trends in the routine use of ultrasound for screening in obstetrics; 2) to consider existing literature on routine ultrasound screening for fetal abnormalities with respect to its safety, accuracy, costs and psychological effects; 3) on the basis of the above, to reach recommendations concerning best practice, areas of continuing controversy, within the areas of controversy, those which might be amenable to research'. (Ref: Terms of reference in M55/1). The working party, under the chairmanship of Professor M J Whittle FRCOG, produced a consultation document in March 1997, which was widely circulated for comment. The final report of the working party was produced in October 1997. In 1998 the working party was reconvened as a supplementary working group to establish a minimum standard for screening; it produced its report in July 2000.
The Group was set up by Council in 1991 to monitor the development of posts in community gynaecology. Its terms of reference were: to determine the role of the consultant in reproductive health/community gynaecology and to advise Council on its development; to formulate guidelines for training; to recommend procedure for recognition of training programmes; to recommend procedure for the award of certificates of completion of training; to monitor existing training posts; to propose procedure for RCOG/Faculty of Family Planning involvement in consultant appointments; to liase between RCOG, BAFPD and the proposed Faculty of Family Planning on reproductive health/community gynaecology; to liase with the Department of Health regarding manpower and funding for posts. The group was considered to have completed its work by mid 1993 and held its last meeting in October of that year.
The working party was established by the RCOG in 1969 to study and report on unplanned pregnancy. The working party commenced its study under the chairmanship of Sir John Peel in 1970 and presented its report to Council in 1972.
The first 'Candidates' Newsletter' was produced in 1993; in December 1996 it was renamed the 'Trainees Newsletter'. Production of the Newsletter was suspended in 1999.
The senior manager for the College was traditionally the College Secretary, with further responsibility for College administration vested in the Deputy College Secretary. The College Secretary managed the College departments in liaison with the College Officers, Council and committee chairmen. In 2005 the post of College Secretary was renamed the Chief Executive Officer.
Traditionally senior management meetings occured between the College Secretary, the Deputy College Secretary and the primary Heads of Departments. This forum was responsible for approving any changes to the departmental structure of the College, revising the reporting structure and discussing the general management of the College. In 2003 the Senior Management Team (SMT) was disbanded as it was decided the Heads of Departments (HoDs) were the senior mangers of the College. However, by July 2005 the College had grown significantly in size, with over eighteen different departments, making it difficult to obtain quick management decisions. A new management structure was introduced dividing the College into four primary divisions or directorates: Services, Administration, Education and Standards. Each divisional director, together with the Chief Executive Officer and the Heads of Personnel and Finance formed the new Senior Management Team. The divisional Directors were to cascade management decisions down through regular meetings with the Heads of Department in their division: these meetings continue to the present day.
The Office of Honorary Secretary is elected to Council by Fellows and Members, the term of office is a maximum of seven years. The post has been in place since 1926, where William Fletcher Shaw was made Secretary. In 2008 the Honorary Secretary's main responsiblities were:
Supporting and assisting the President
The agenda for Council and Finance and Executive Committee
Chairing the Services Board and Services Group
Deputy Chair of the Consumers Forum
Representing the College Officers on the Staff Committee
RCOG Press Officer
RCOG awards, prizes & lectures
Attending meetings of Regional College Advisers, College Tutors and Overseas Chairmen
Fellows ad eundem selection process
Representation on European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Ex officio member of all Boards and Standing Committees
Department of Health Workforce matters
The Honorary Secretary works closely with Membership services in respect of:
a) Approving requests for the purchase of data about Fellows and Members
b) Corresponding with the family members of deceased Fellows and Members
c) Advice and approval of applications for Associates and Affiliates
d) The organisation of MRCOG and FRCOG Admission Ceremonies
He also works closely with the Communications and External Affairs department in respect of:
a) RCOG communications to Associates and Affiliates
b) Communications with Fellows and Members on contemporary issues
c) Membership benefits
d) Approving publicity material for national and international meetings
e) Medical Students' Evenings
The Honorary Secretary is a member of various Committees/Working Parties including: Management Audit Committee; Work life Balance; RCOG/APOG Working Group; Clinical Standards Working Party; Future Workforce in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The Bookshop opened in June 1993 at 78 Park Road, under the governance of the College Secretary. In September 2000 it became part of the Publications Department, then from April 2005 the Bookshop formed a separate department of its own right. It sells a comprehensive range of books and software for women's health professionals, College gifts, book tokens and stamps. It also distributes and markets the RCOG Press titles. In May 1999 it moved to premises within the College at 27 Sussex Place. It also operates an online store on the College website that went live in July 1997 which by June 2001 offered the full stock range and a 'shopping basket' purchasing system.
The Bookshop initially produced two catalogues: College publications and other publications for sale; in 1995 the two catalogues were combined. An additional separate catalogue for RCOG Press titles continued until 1999 when it too was incorporated into the RCOG Bookshop catalogue. The catalogue was discontinued after 2003 and replaced by Bookshop news updates which were expanded into bulletins in 2004. A new Publications catalogue featuring items from the RCOG Press was produced in 2005. The Bookshop also issues gift catalogues listing College regalia for sale.
An Accreditation Sub-Committee was established in 1970 to direct the accreditation of training and report to Council. The committee approved following procedure: - a member of the College should be eligible to apply for accreditation after three years further approved experience and training in obstetrics and gynaecology beyond the requirements of the MRCOG examination, of which two years were to be subsequent to admission to the membership of the RCOG and normally in a post of responsibility corresponding to that of a senior registrar in an NHS hospital; the administration of accreditation should be the responsibility of the Postgraduate Medical Education Committee. (Council minutes 26 Sept 1970; Archives reference: B13/1) Later known as the Accreditation Panel, and from 1973 as the Accreditation Committee, it became the Higher Training Committee (HTC) in 1984. Its role was to "oversee and regulate all matters pertaining to higher training" and was responsible for: inspecting and recognising higher training posts at registrar and senior registrar levels; agreeing higher training programmes for accreditation; monitoring the progress of trainees; recommending individuals to Council for accreditation; advising Council on the regulations for accreditation. In December 1985 a Subspecialty Board was established as a sub-committee of the Higher Training Committee; in July 1988 this Board became an independent standing committee. In 1998 the Higher Training Committee's functions relating to the recognition of specialist registrar posts was passed to the Hospital Recognition Committee (HRC). The Higher Training Committee continued to carry out its other functions under the new name of the Specialist Training Committee from 1999. The Specialist Training Committee was disbanded in July 2007 and was replaced by the Specialty Education Advisory Committee (SEAC). The function of the Committee is to be responsible for the content, structure and delivery of the Specialty Training Programme and to advise the eligibility of doctors for the award of the Certificate of Completion of Training. All the above committees were/are serviced by the College's Postgraduate Training Department (PGT) and reported to the Education Board.
The Publications Panel was set up in 1978 to consider the format, typesetting, binding and print runs of College scientific publications (ref: RCOG/B16/1, internal memo 22/1/85). It reported to the Finance and Executive Committee. In February 1985 the Panel was reformed to 'meet only when necessary to discuss printers quotations, publishers proposals, print quantities and handling charges to Fellows and Members' (ref: RCOG/B16/1, agenda Feb 1985). The Panel was chaired by the Honorary Treasurer.
In 1987 the Joint Planning Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the Department of Health invited a submission from the RCOG on training grade numbers. Ad hoc meetings were held to formulate a response. This was followed by an occasional Manpower Working Party which met from 1988 to advise Council on these issues. The Working Party began to undertake annual censuses to identify numbers in training, career prospects and related areas of concern and also to hold annual meetings to update members of the profession in manpower issues and to allow sharing of views between the College, the Department of Health, purchasers and providers of health care. Special surveys and studies on specific issues were also undertaken. By 1990 the Working Party had gradually evolved into full committee but did not adopt a formal constitution and terms of reference until 1992, when it was decided that its role was 'to advise Council on all matters relating to manpower in obstetrics and gynaecology' and 'to keep Council informed of the census results and manpower and staffing trends which are identified.' In 1997 it was decided that the term 'manpower' was outdated and the committee was renamed the Medical Workforce Advisory Committee (MWAC).
This Committee was established to act as a channel of communication between trainees and the RCOG and as a forum for discussion of issues relevant to training in obstetrics and gynaecology. The idea for the committee originally arose in the early 1990s in response to health service reform, the reduction of working hours and changing working practices of junior doctors, the Calman reforms in medical education, and concerns about the retention and recruitment of trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology. It was to be a constituted as a democratically-elected standing committee of the RCOG, members being elected by other trainees, and would liaise with the College about examinations, accreditation and training issues in the light of the current health service reforms. This national committee was to be accompanied by regional committees that would liaise with Regional College Advisers, Postgraduate Deans and District Tutors about local matters. An Interim Trainees Committee was established in 1993, with Dr Susan Bewley as Chair. Elections were held early in 1994 and the National Trainees Committee proper held its first meeting in July 1994. In 1998 it became known as the Trainees Committee. In addition to giving them a voice within the RCOG, the committee organised a series of surveys of trainees, to ascertain their views on training in obstetrics and gynaecology, working patterns, remuneration and the effect of health service reforms.
The External Affairs Committee was set up on April 6th 1933 to deal with external matters not specifically the concern of any one College Committee, such as matters of public and national health, and with public enquiries. It was also known as the External Relations Committee. Its activities were gradually taken over by Finance and Executive Committee during the Second World War, and it is last mentioned as a functioning committee in Council and Finance and Executive Committee minutes in 1943. The last minutes surviving in the minute book (ref: RCOG/T4) date from 16 June 1939.