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William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) was co-founder (with William Fletcher Shaw) of the College and its first President. The second son of William and Helen Bell, he was born in Wallasey in 1871 and educated at Rossall School, King's College London and King's College Hospital. In 1905 he left general practice in Wallasey and was appointed to the post of Assistant Consultant Gynaecologist to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In 1918 he became senior surgeon and in 1921 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool University, a position he held until 1931. In 1929 he married his cousin, Florence.

Blair-Bell was President of the Obstetric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS). He was co-founder of the College in 1929 and presented the College with its first headquarters at 58 Queen Anne Street. He established the money for the William Blair-Bell memorial lectures and for other research projects. He was President of the College from its inception until 1935, the year before his death (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 73-77).

Background to The History of the Origin and Rise of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists: Blair-Bell resigned from all committees of the College in April 1934, and it would appear that shortly afterwards he began to compose his history of the foundation and earliest years of the College. The prefatory explanation is dated 22 May 1934 and it was probably written before any other part of the text. It appears from a file of his correspondence with colleagues and others that he first began to seek information and papers to help him in late May 1934 (the file is A1/1 and covers May to June 1934. Fletcher Shaw's copies of his correspondence with Blair-Bell on the subject are in A4/4/23).

Blair Bell's will, which is dated 22 March 1935, contains the following clause: "I also direct that the historical composition concerning the origin and rise of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists which I shall leave shall be kept sealed and unread and shall immediately be deposited in a bank until such time as it is published not sooner than fifteen years after my death and not until after the death of the last surviving member of the Finance and Executive Committees of the aforesaid College in existence between One thousand nine hundred and twenty nine and one thousand nine hundred and thirty four and I direct that the expenses of publication shall be defrayed by means of a grant from the final accumulated residue of my estate. The format printing and binding shall in accordance with a memorandum I shall leave with the typescript copies of the book and the copies printed shall be distributed in accordance with a further memorandum I shall leave. Should the history not be completed at the time of my death a fact which will be known by Miss Nockolds it is to be completed at once Arthur Capel Herbert Bell and Eleanor Nockolds from documents and letters in my possession and from extracts made from my diaries by Arthur Capel Herbert Bell. Editing of the whole or part completed by me is to be confined to typing and printing and verbal errors". In addition to instructions about format, binding, and printing, Blair Bell also left instructions with the typescript that one thousand were to be printed and distributed to various institutions and individuals, and to each fellow and member of the College. If the College wished to print copies it might do so, but at its own expense. In those circumstances the typescript was to pass to the College providing that College gave an undertaking not to alter the text in any way.

In a memorandum, the text of which may be seen in S33/3, it is stated that the text was completed by the trustees. It is unclear how much of the text was left unfinished by Blair-Bell.

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 Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, its first Honorary Secretary, from 1929-1938, and President from 1938-1943. 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).

It would appear that Fletcher Shaw kept in his personal custody much of his correspondence and other papers relating to the foundation of the College and to his terms of office as president and honorary secretary. He preserved them for their historical value and when he ceased to be president in 1943 he returned to an earlier plan to compose a history of the foundation of the College. In November 1950 the College's Council approved a proposal that it would pay for the publication of the history. Simultaneously, however, Fletcher Shaw appears to have wished to record for a distant posterity memories, judgements, and documents that he must have recognised could not be published during the lifetimes of his own contemporaries and the following generation. In 1953 the then President A A Gemmell suggested that the history should be extended beyond the foundation years to cover the entire period up to the present and that it should be published as part of the College's silver jubilee celebrations in 1954.

Fletcher Shaw resumed work with increased energy but his text aroused opposition, partly because of its account of the role of Victor Bonney in the College's formation, and partly because of its frankness. The publishers thought it actionable. After G F Gibberd (honorary secretary 1938-1947) had declined to revise the text Fletcher Shaw contacted a former student, Harvey Flack, who, with an assistant, prepared the text for publication. It was published as Twenty-five Years: The story of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1954 (hereafter cited as Twenty-five Years). (See e.g S34/73/3, S34/85/6, S34/70/7, S34/101. See also A4/4/15, A4/4/21a-b.) In his preface Fletcher Shaw praised Flack's skilful editing. Nevertheless it would appear that he felt that while compromise was necessary to ensure publication in 1954 it resulted in an incomplete account of events. It was apparently for this reason that he continued to revise and augment his different drafts and directed that after his death all his papers should be sent to the College. These papers therefore preserve all Fletcher Shaw's drafts together with supporting documentation, research notes, and specially prepared extracts from Council, and Finance and Executive Committee minutes, and from his personal diary. In the list below no serious attempt has been made to identify the relationship of the different drafts to the published text in Twenty-five Years.

One of Fletcher Shaw's motives in writing his accounts of the history of the College was to record his own recollections and perceptions of events in contradistinction to William Blair-Bell's. Fletcher Shaw knew that Blair-Bell had composed his own account of the early years of the College and he was concerned that this account might be unduly informed by Blair-Bell's own bitterness and regrets. (See in particular S34/3, S34/69/9). It is unlikely that Fletcher Shaw ever saw Blair-Bell's history as it remained in the custody of the latter's executors until 1970 when it came into the College's possession (it is now S33/1-2 - there is some correspondence between Blair-Bell and Fletcher Shaw in A4/4/22-24 on their respective plans).

In order to assist him in his composition the College Secretary W E Mallon sent Fletcher Shaw various papers and documents. Many of these are to be found among these papers. He also corresponded with some of his contemporaries and colleagues in order to make use of their recollections.

Bibliography: Sir John Peel, The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1969, Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1975, pp 38-40.

James Montague Wyatt (1883-1953), MB, BS (London) 1905, FRCS 1910, FRCOG 1929, qualified in 1905 at St Thomas's Hospital, where, after various appointments and service in World War I, he became Obstetric Physician until 1946. He was a Foundation Fellow of the College, served on the Council from 1941-1946 and was Vice President for the next three years (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp.387-388). On his death Wyatt left a generous bequest to the College to finance the holding of an annual James Wyatt dinner. The memoir described below was given as a speech at the 1978 dinner.

William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) was co-founder (with William Fletcher Shaw) of the College and its first President. The second son of William and Helen Bell, he was born in Wallasey in 1871 and educated at Rossall School, King's College London and King's College Hospital. In 1905 he left general practice in Wallasey and was appointed to the post of Assistant Consultant Gynaecologist to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In 1918 he became senior surgeon and in 1921 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool University, a position he held until 1931. In 1929 he married his cousin, Florence.

Blair-Bell was President of the Obstetric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS). He was co-founder of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929 and presented the College with its first headquarters at 58 Queen Anne Street. He established the money for the William Blair-Bell memorial lectures and for other research projects. He was President of the College from its inception until 1935, the year before his death (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 73-77).

Vivian Bartley Green-Armytage (1882-1961) was a Foundation Fellow of the College and served as its Vice President from 1949-1951. He endowed the Green-Armytage Short Term Travelling Scholarship Fund, the Green-Armytage Anglo-American Lectureship and the J Y Simpson Oration (bibliography: see Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp.179-181).

Gordon William Fitzgerald (1899-1944), OBE, TD, MB, CM (Edinburgh) 1898, LM (Dublin) 1899, MD (Edinburgh) 1901, FRCOG 1929, graduated in Edinburgh and Dublin. He spent most of his professional life in Manchester at the Municipal Hospital and as an active member of the North of England Obstetric and Gynaecological Society. He was a Founder Fellow of the College (bibliography: see Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp.154-155).

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.

John Harold Peel KCVO, MA, BM BCh (Oxon), FRCP, FRCS, Hon FRCOG, Hon DSc (Birm), Hon FRCS(C.), Hon FCOG (SA), Hon FACS, Hon FACOG, Hon NMSA, Hon DM (Soton), Hon SCh (Newcastle) served as the College's Honorary Treasurer from 1959-1966 and as President from 1966-1969. He was elevated to the honorary fellowship of the College in 1989. On retiring as President of the College in 1969, John Peel was asked by Council to undertake the task of preparing a history of the lives of the Fellows, along the same lines as volumes published by the two older Royal Colleges (the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England). The completed work was published in 1976 as The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1969 (Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1976).

Thomas Norman Arthur Jeffcoate (1907-1992) specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology after qualifying with First Class Honours from Liverpool University in 1929. From 1930 until his retirement in 1972 he served on the teaching staff of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool. By 1933 he had been appointed Honorary Consultant at the Women's Hospital, Liverpool Maternity Hospital and the David Lewis Northern Hospital. In 1945 he became the University's first full-time Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He was President of the RCOG from 1969-1972 and was knighted in 1970.

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.

These rolls of lottery tickets were printed in Dublin in 1753-1754 to raise money for the building of a new hospital in Great Britain St, Dublin, for poor lying-in women. The lottery was later abandoned.

William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) was co-founder (with William Fletcher Shaw) of the College and its first President. The second son of William and Helen Bell, he was born in Wallasey in 1871 and educated at Rossall School, King's College London and King's College Hospital. In 1905 he left general practice in Wallasey and was appointed to the post of Assistant Consultant Gynaecologist to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. In 1918 he became senior surgeon and in 1921 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool University, a position he held until 1931. In 1929 he married his cousin, Florence.

Blair-Bell was President of the Obstetric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS). He was co-founder of the College in 1929 and presented the College with its first headquarters at 58 Queen Anne Street. He established the money for the William Blair-Bell memorial lectures and for other research projects. He was President of the College from its inception until 1935, the year before his death (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 73-77).

Harold Hugh Francis, BSc, MB, ChB, MRCS, LRCP, became a Member of the College in 1950 and a Fellow in 1959. Now retired, he served on the Joint Committee on Contraception from 1977-1981 (bibliography: RCOG, Register of Fellows and Members 1997 p 38).

Donald Roy was born in Appleton, Roebuck on 22 May 1881. He obtained first-class honours in the natural science tripos from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and went on to qualify at St George's Hospital, London in 1906. He started working in various London hospitals (the General Lying-in Hospital, the Royal Free, St George's and the Samaritan Hospital for Women) prior to World War One. He served first in the Navy then transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corp in 1917; by the end of the War he was working in Northampton War Hospital. He returned to London and was finally appointed to the consulting staff of St George's Hospital, where he remained for the rest of his professional life. A Foundation Fellow of the College, he also served as the College Librarian from 1 October 1937 to 25 January 1941 when he stepped down due to ill health (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 325-326).

William Gilliatt (1884-1956), KCVO, MD, MS, FRCP(Lond), Hon MMSA, was the son of a pharmacist. He graduated from the Middlesex Hospital in 1908 and held various posts there. In 1916 he was appointed assistant obstetric and gynaecological surgeon at King's College Hospital, becoming full surgeon in 1925. He remained at King's until his retirement in 1946. He also held the posts of obstetric surgeon to Queen Charlotte's Hospital and consulting surgeon to Bromley Cottage Hospital, the Maudsley Hospital and St Saviour's Hospital. He served for more than 20 years as gynaecologist to the Royal Family, attending the births of Prince Charles and Princess Anne. As a result of his relationship with the Royal family, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother accepted the office of patron of the College and the Honorary Fellowship. He was married with one daughter, and was knighted in 1948. He was killed in a car accident on 27 September 1956.

Gilliatt was a foundation fellow of the RCOG, and served on the Council from 1932 until his death. He was Honorary Secretary from 1942-1945 and became President in 1946 (bibliography: Sir John Peel, Lives of the Fellows, pp 169-172).

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.

Wallace Beresford Shute (b.1911), BA, MD, FRCS, FAC, FACOG, Hon FRCOG, graduated with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (Honour Science) 1933 and Doctor of Medicine 1936 from the University of Western Ontario. After six years' post-graduate training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Detroit, Montreal and Chicago, he practised for a short time in Canada, before volunteering for the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1943. He was Gynaecologist to the Canadian Women's Army in England before demobilisation in 1946. He then practised in Ottawa until his retirement in 1985. Dr Shute has made several significant contributions to medical science, particularly with his invention of the Shute Parallel Obstetrical Forceps. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the RCOG in June 1994 (bibliography: see Dr Shute's biography and c.v at S48/1).

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.

The aquarells were originally held in the department of Carl Joseph Gauss, Dr Buschbeck's father in law, in the University of Wurzburg. They later came into the possession of Dr Herbert Buschbeck, Gauss' son in law, and presented by Dr Buschbeck to the College in 1985.

Dr Gunther Schmidt, a gynaecologist based in Hanover and a former pupil of Dr Gauss, presented a list of descriptions, or legend, of the aquarells in 1987.

Alban Henry Griffith Doran (1849-1927), MRCS, FRCS, LSA received his medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he served as House Surgeon, House Physician and Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. He gave up teaching after a year to become, in 1873, Assistant in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. After his retirement from private practice in 1909 he devoted his energies largely to the compilation of the above catalogues.

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.

The series comprises midwifery certificates awarded in the C18 and C19.

Peter Chamberlen the elder (d.1631) was a surgeon and celebrated accoucheur, attending the queens of James I and Charles I. His name is connected with the short midwifery forceps, which he was probably the first of his family to use. His younger brother Peter (1572-1626), and grand nephew Peter (1601-1683) were also surgeons who employed and developed the Chamberlen instruments, but Peter the elder is usually credited with being their first user (Dictionary of National Biography Vol IV, OUP, 1917, pp 13-14).

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.

Hugh Cameron McLaren (1913-1986) MD, FRCPGLAS, FRCSED, FRCOG graduated from Glasgow University in 1936. He specialized in obstetrics and gynaecology early in his career and in the years before the war he worked in Glasgow, Aberdeen and, for a short spell, Berlin. During his service with the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War Two, his surgical experience fitted him to work in an army field surgical unit, While campaigning in Germany he came upon the horrors of the concentration camps, including Sandbostel, which he entered in May 1945 as a surgical specialist, 10th (British) Casualty Clearing Station, British Liberation Army. After the war he became first assistant to Hilda Lloyd in Birmingham, succeeding her as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1952. He also served the RCOG as a member of the Scientific Advisory and Pathology Committee from 1950-1967, the Examination Committee from 1951-1955 and as a Fellows' representative on Council from 1969-1975. An inveterate traveller, he helped to found the gynaecological club The Travellors.

Alun Hoddinott was born in Bargoed, Glamorganshire and educated at University College, Cardiff, and later studied privately with Arthur Benjamin. His first major composition, the Clarinet Concerto, was performed at the Cheltenham Festival of 1954 by Gervase de Peyer with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli. This brought Hoddinott a national profile which was followed by a string of commissions by leading orchestras and soloists.

Hoddinott has been awarded honorary doctorates from numerous leading musical institutions including the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, as well as the Walford Davies Award and the CBE.

In 2005, Hoddinott produced a fanfare to be performed at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Camilla Parker Bowles, having previously written works to celebrate Prince Charles' 16th birthday and his investiture.

In 1997 Alun Hoddinott received the Glyndwr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during the Machynlleth Festival. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arts Council of Wales in 1999, Fellowship of the Welsh Music Guild and the presentation of a medal to him by Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of the official opening of the Wales Millennium Centre.

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.

Roy Samuel Dobbin FRCOG (1873-1939) graduated in medicine at Trinity College Dublin. His main interest was pathology, but he also worked in obstetrics and in 1906 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cairo. After service during the First World War he returned to Cairo, where he spent the rest of his professional life.

Edward Protheroe-Smith was a descendant of Dr Protheroe-Smith, the founder of the Hospital for Women in Soho Square (1842).

The 'Charity for Attending and Delivering poor Married Women in their Lying in at their Respective Habitations', later known as the 'Lying-in Charity for Delivering Poor Married Women at their Own Habitations' and finally as the 'Royal Maternity Charity for Delivering Poor Married Women in their Own Habitations', was established in March 1757. Its main instigator was James Le Cour, an 'eminent jeweller' of Huguenot descent.

The Charity offered a service to 'sober and industrious' married women 'destitute of help in time of labour'. It supplied them with medicines, provided midwives for 'common cases' and surgeon accouchers or physicians for more 'difficult cases', allowing them to give birth more safely and comfortably in their own homes.

Those paying a yearly subscription became 'Governors' of the Charity, able to recommend a certain number of cases for every guinea donated. Initially, general meetings or 'courts' of Governors were held every quarter 'to receive the report of the Committee and regulate the affairs of the Charity'. A smaller Committee and Officers were elected annually to oversee day-to-day management. By the mid nineteenth century a pattern of Annual General Meetings and General Committee meetings was supplemented by those of a Medical Sub-committee, chaired by one of the Physicians, and other sub-committees, such as a Finance Committee.

Early meetings were held in various coffee houses and taverns in the City of London, mainly Will's Coffee House in Cornhill and the Bank Coffee House, Threadneedle Street. From the 1840s the Charity had its own premises in Finsbury Square, in 1918 moving to offices in John Street, and subsequently to 46 Bedford Row.

By the late nineteenth century the Charity employed the voluntary services of 'Visiting Ladies', 'for the purpose of lending material assistance in addition to medical, in cases of great necessity and destitution'. These ladies visited cases and handed out relief from the Charity's Samaritan Fund. In 1905 a further venture was a 'Training School for Midwives', preparing them for the new CMB examination. This was based at the house of the then Head Midwife in Paddington, with lectures being delivered by one of the Charity's Physicians.

By the mid twentieth century there were several other agencies providing a similar service, and the Charity was advised by the Ministry of Health to affiliate with another organisation. Its investments were transferred to the official trustee of charitable funds, and were used for grants to the Central Council for District Nursing in London. The Charity wound up its affairs in 1949.

Robert Barnes was born, 1817; apprentice to Dr Richard Griffin, Norwich, 1832; studied at University College London, and St George's Hospital; member of the Royal College of Surgeons; year in Paris; taught at the Hunterian School of Medicine and in the discipline of forensic medicine at the Dermott's School on Windmill Street; obstetrician at the Western General Dispensary; Doctor of Medicine, 1848; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1848; obstetrical assistant, 1859; obstetrician in chief, (Royal) London Hospital, 1863; obstetrician in chief, St Thomas' Hospital, 1865; obstetrician in chief, St George's Hospital, 1875; consulting obstetrician, St George's Hospital, 1885; actively involved at The Seamen's Hospital, the East London Hospital for Children and the Royal Maternity Charity; one of the founding members of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1858; President of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1865-1866; founded the British Gynaecological Society, 1884, of which he was Honorary Chairman until his death; died, 1907.

Robert Barnes was born, 1817; apprentice to Dr Richard Griffin, Norwich, 1832; studied at University College London, and St George's Hospital; member of the Royal College of Surgeons; year in Paris; taught at the Hunterian School of Medicine and in the discipline of forensic medicine at the Dermott's School on Windmill Street; obstetrician at the Western General Dispensary; Doctor of Medicine, 1848; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1848; obstetrical assistant, 1859; obstetrician in chief, (Royal) London Hospital, 1863; obstetrician in chief, St Thomas' Hospital, 1865; obstetrician in chief, St George's Hospital, 1875; consulting obstetrician, St George's Hospital, 1885; actively involved at The Seamen's Hospital, the East London Hospital for Children and the Royal Maternity Charity; one of the founding members of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1858; President of the Obstetrical Society of London, 1865-1866; founded the British Gynaecological Society, 1884, of which he was Honorary Chairman until his death; died, 1907.

Edward Anthony John Alment, known as Tony, was born in 1922, the son of a Watford GP. He was educated at Marlborough College and trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying in 1945. After posts in London, at St Bartholomew's and Queen Charlotte's Hospitals, and a spell of National Service in the RAF, he was appointed to Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals in 1960, where he remained as consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist until 1985. In the 1970s he was known for his recognition of the importance of feminist ideas about women's health, and was an advocate of the establishment of special abortion clinics. He was also interested and involved in healthcare organisation and management. He joined the Oxford Regional Health Authority in 1969, serving until 1976. In 1976 he chaired the Inquiry into Competence to Practice and also served as a member of the Maternity Services Advisory Committee and the CASPE research project into clinical budgeting. He was knighted in 1980. Sir Anthony served as Honorary Secretary of the RCOG from 1968-1973, as President from 1978-1981 and as Honorary Cellarer from 1983-1990. He died in March 2002.

The Fothergill Club was named after the eminent gynaecologist, William Edward Fothergill (1865-1926). WE Fothergill himself had been a teacher and Professor of Obstetrics at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, after completing his medical degree at Edinburgh in 1893. He modified Archibald Donald's operation for uterine prolapse, which became known as the Fothergill operation.

Fothergill firmly believed that gynaecologists should have some obstetrical training and tried to bring greater logic into the classifications used in gynaecology. He was against the anatomical classification of diseases used in books and lectures, as the same disease process could occur anywhere in the body, and the fact that symptoms were often made into diseases. He recommended an alternative pathological classification instead and promoted his own classification in his book Manual of Diseases of Women, in 1920. In the introduction to this book, he wrote his opinion that 'no one who has not in one way or another become a good obstetrician can ever hope to understand the diseases of women'.

The Fothergill Club, inspired to some extent by this reputation, was founded by Theodore Redman (1916-2004), former Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St James's Hospital, Leeds, with two of his colleagues. The idea for such a society arose at a meeting of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society in 1957, when a group of members who had also been together at St Mary's, Manchester, like WE Fothergill, felt that there was a place for a new gynaecological club which would exist mainly to visit other centres of excellence in Britain and overseas, and to combine study of the specialty with what the club termed the 'Art of Living'. It was also recognised by Theodore Redman that other similar societies were very full at that time.

The inaugural meetings were held on the 8th and 9th May 1958 in Plymouth, after initial discussions on the 26th July 1957, in Manchester. The Club's founding members, apart from Theodore Redman, were Sir John (Jack) Dewhurst, later President of the RCOG from 1975-1978 ,Tiger Bevis, Howard Rowley, Frank Da Cunha, Tom Fitzgerald, Tubby Lawton, Gordon Napier and Alan Robson. At the club meetings in May and November 1958, it was decided that membership should be restricted to twenty people at any one time, (although this was later increased and allowed for the inclusion of inactive and honorary members) and that nominations should only be put forward at the next meeting after the one at which first contact with a potential member had been made. It was also agreed that prospective members' Cvs should be circulated to all current members, so that any reservations about a nomination could be expressed.

The Fothergill club had a varied annual programme of academic and cultural activities, combining business and scientific meetings with visits to places of interest, which allowed members' spouses and partners to travel with the club on most occasions and participate in these cultural aspects. From 1958 onwards, the Club became a successful travelling group that visited specialists in many European cities and in the United States. Visits were made in the UK and abroad in alternate years amd meetings were usually held twice a year in May/June and October/November. Theodore Redman produced a history of the Club for circulation to all members, in 2000.

John Preston Maxwell was born on 5 Dec 1871 in Birmingham, where his father, Dr James Laidlaw Maxwell, practised medicine.

He attended University College School, Hampstead and University College London, before taking his clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, from which he emerged with a gold medal in obstetrics and went on to work as a resident at St Bartholomew's.

Then, following his devout Presbyterian faith, Maxwell became a Medical missionary for the English Presbyterian Church and, in about 1898, went to Yungchun Hospital at Fujian in China, where he spent the majority of his professional life. He specialised in obstetrics and was a leading authority on foetal osteomalacia. He became a Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Peking Union Medical College (a teaching hospital funded by the Rockefeller Foundation), President of the Chinese Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and worked as secretary to the medical committee of the Lord Mayor's Fund for the Relief of Distress in China. He was awarded the Army and Navy Medal by the Chinese Republic and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929.

Maxwell returned to England at some point after 1935 (possibly as a result of the invasion of Beijing by the Japanese in 1937) and lived at Brinkley in Cambridgeshire. He was elected consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the nearby Newmarket General Hospital. He married and had one daughter; his wife, Lilly (who, as a proficient artist, illustrated some of her husband's research papers), predeceased him. John Preston Maxwell died suddenly near his home on 25 Jul 1961, at the age of 89.

James Alexander Chalmers (known as Hamish) was born in Inverness in 1912 and qualified in medicine in Edinburgh in 1934. Following service in the Air Force Medical Branch during the Second World War and posts at Bath, Birmingham, Inverness and Edinburgh, he was senior consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester from 1951-1977. He obtained his MRCOG in 1940 and became an FRCOG in 1954.

Chalmers is best known for introducing the vacuum extractor (ventouse) to British obstetric practice, as an alternative to forceps. He was introduced to the method by Professor Snoeck during a visit to Belgium in 1957 and went on to undertake vacuum deliveries at Worcester and to become an advocate for the apparatus.

He also researched widely on the history, development and current use of the procedure and accumulated a collection of publications from around the world on the topic. He visited key practitioners abroad, including V Finderle in Yugoslavia and T Malmstrom in Sweden. In 1971 he published a key work on the technique: The Ventouse-The Obstetric Vacuum Extractor (London: Lloyd-Luke, 1971).

Chalmers died in 1998.

The Lying-In Hospital for married Women was founded in November 1749 by a group of governors of the Middlesex Hospital who were dissatisfied with the resources allocated by that hospital to lying-in women. From 1752 female pupils were admitted to the hospital for periods of six months in order to learn midwifery.

A General Meeting or Court of the Governors was held every quarter to make the laws and rules of the hospital. A committee of fifteen governors was chosen at each Quarterly General Court to meet at the hospital once a week to receive patients and to direct the ordinary affairs of the hospital. From 1806, except for the years 1811-1820, the General Court met half-yearly instead of quarterly. A new constitution was approved on 9 July 1869. This provided for an annual general meeting of governors who were to elect fifteen of their number to form a Board of Management which was to meet once a month. The Board was to appoint such standing committees as might be advisable including a ladies committee. In 1756 the name of the hospital was changed from 'The Lying-In Hospital for Married Women' to 'The British Lying-In Hospital for Married Women'. In 1828 the hospital decided to start sending midwives to deliver out-patients in their own homes. In 1849 it moved to a new building in Endell Street, Holborn.

By the beginning of this century the hospital was facing serious problems. Its buildings were unsatisfactory and old fashioned. It was in financial difficulties. The population of the area was decreasing and the teaching hospitals in the neighbourhood had opened maternity wards. Rather than rebuilding in the same area, King Edward's Hospital Fund advised amalgamation with another maternity hospital, preferably the Home for Mothers and Babies in Woolwich. Agreement between the two institutions was soon reached, though legal difficulties delayed the signing of the Charity Commission Scheme approving the amalgamation until 29 January 1915. The British Lying-In Hospital closed on 31 May 1913.

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, 1848; educated at Winchester College,1860-1866, and at Brasenose College, Oxford, 1866-1870, medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, 1870-1875; MD, 1888; Radcliffe travelling fellowship of Oxford University; member of the Royal College of Physicians, 1876, and fellow, 1882; member of the board for the examination of midwives of the Obstetrical Society of London (OSL), 1882; assistant obstetric physician to St George's Hospital and Obstetric Physician to the General Lying-in Hospital, York Road, 1880; Obstetric Physician to St George's, 1885; Physician Accoucheur to St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1891-1913; Chairman of the OSL, 1891-1895; President of the OSL, 1895; Chairman of the Central Midwives' Board, 1902-1930; retired 1913; died, 1930.

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)

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.

Born, 1875; educated, Bristol Grammar School; medical education, University College Bristol, Bristol Royal Infirmary and King's College, London; graduated bachelor of medicine with honours in obstetrics, 1900; ship's surgeon; house surgeon, Leicester Royal Infirmary; Bachelor of Surgery, London, 1903; postgraduate attachment at the London Hospital; Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1903; resident house surgeon, Jessop Hospital for Women (JHW), Sheffield, 1904, honorary medical staff, JHW, 1906; president of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, 1918-1920; senior surgeon, JHW, 1921-1935; part time Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Sheffield, 1921-1935; member of the departmental committee on maternal mortality and morbidity, 1928; president of the obstetrics and gynaecology section of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1937; retired early to rural Carmarthenshire and studied the history of obstetrics, he was also instrumental in restoring the library of William Smellie; died, 1965.

Publications: Historical Review of British Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1800-1950, with J M Munro Kerr and R W Johnstone (Livingstone, 1954)

W Stroganoff was a Russian professor based in Leningrad, he published The Improved Prophylactic Method in the Treatment of Eclampsia (1930: New York. William Wood & Co.).

James Haig Ferguson was born 1862; educated in Edinburgh, graduating 1884; general practitioner; specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Infirmary and Royal Maternity Hospital, Edinburgh; opened a hostel for antenatal care in Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital, 1899; died, 1934.

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.

Born, 1762 or 1763; medical education in London and Edinburgh; graduated MD, University of St Andrews, 1797; obstetric physician, London; licentiate in midwifery, Royal College of Physicians (RCP), 1800; licentiate of RCP, 1804; physician to the maternity hospital, Brownlow Street; editor of the Medical and Physical Journal; amateur artist, exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1788-1797; died, 1849.

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.

Born, 1834; Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1863; Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries of London, 1866; Member of the British Medical Association; Medical Ref., Pearl Assurance Company; Surgeon, St Marylebone Provident Dispensary and St James and St Anne's General Dispensaries; died, 1897.

John Haighton was born, Lancashire, about 1755; pupil of Else at St Thomas's Hospital; Surgeon to the guards; Demonstrator of Anatomy, St Thomas's Hospital, resigned, 1789; Lecturer in Physiology, [1788], and Midwifery with Dr Lowder, St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals; conducted numerous physiological experiments; M D; Fellow, Royal Society; presided at meetings of the Physical Society at Guy's Hospital; joint editor of Medical Records and Researches, 1798; assisted Dr William Saunders in his Treatise on the Liver, 1793; silver medal of the Medical Society of London, 1790; his nephew, Dr James Blundell began to assist him in his lectures, 1814, and took the entire course from 1818; died, 1823.

Publications include: 'An Attempt to Ascertain the Powers concerned in the Act of Vomiting,' in Memoirs of the Medical Society of London (ii. 250) (1789); A syllabus of the Lectures on Midwifery delivered at Guy's Hospital and at Dr Lowder's and Dr Haighton's Theatre in ... Southwark (London, re-printed 1799); A case of Tic Douloureux ... successfully treated by a division of the affected nerve. An inquiry concerning the true and spurious Cæsarian Operation, etc (1813).

Jasper D Ricards entered the United Hospitals (St Thomas' and Guys), 10 Sep 1798.

Solomon Bender MD, FRCS (Ed), FRCOG, wrote an article on this case for the British Medical Journal in 1965.

Robert Gell was Surgeon at Wirksworth, Derbyshire.