Born in New York, USA; author and journalist; chief European correspondent for the Mutual Broadcasting Network, Berlin, Germany [1960-1962]; London correspondent for the New Leader Magazine, 1986.Publications: Enemy in the shadows: the world of spies and spying (Luscombe, London, 1976); The irresistible impulse: an evocative study of erotic notions and practices through the ages (Paddington Press, London, 1979); The British: a portrait of an indomitable island people (Everest House, New York, USA, 1982); Less than glory [1984]; Scramble: a narrative history of the Battle of Britain(Michael Joseph, London, 1986); The Berlin wall: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and a showdown in the heart of Europe (Michael Joseph, London, 1986); Dunkirk: the incredible escape (Michael Joseph, London, 1990); Desperate venture: the story of Operation TORCH, the Allied invasion of North Africa (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1992); editor of Jonathan Carver's travels through America,1766-1768, an eighteenth century explorer's account of uncharted America (Wiley, Chichester, New York, USA, 1993); Ike and Monty, Generals at war (Constable, London, 1994).
Born 1889; educated at Haileybury; commissioned into Corps of Royal Engineers, 1910; Lt, 1912; served in World War One, 1914-1918; Capt, 1916; acting Maj, 1916-1918; service in Mesopotamia, 1916-1918; awarded DSO, 1917; Staff Officer to Engineer-in-Chief, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, 1918-1919; Maj, 1926; service in India, [1932-1947]; Lt Col, 1934; Col, 1937;Director, Survey Department of India, 1937; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; awarded CIE, 1942; retired as Hon Brig, 1948; President, British Cave Rescue Association; died 1980.Publications: Gravity anomalies and the structure of the Earth's crust (Survey of India, Dehra Dun, India, 1932); A report on the values of gravity in the Maldive and Laccadive Islands (The John Murray Expedition, Scientific Reports, London, 1936); Cave fauna (Cave Research Group, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 1946); Cave fauna. Preliminary list with Mary Hazelton (Cave Research Group,Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 1947); National Grid co-ordinates of corners of 6-inch Ordnance Survey Sheets and cutting values at sheet edges of one-kilometre grid lines near corners (Cave Research Group, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, 1948).
Born [1920]; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; joined RAF, 1940; Pilot Officer, Cairo, Egypt, 1941; served in India, Dec 1941; service in Java, Dutch East Indies, 1942, and evacuated to India following Japanese invasion, Feb 1942; served in Burma, 1942; service with Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit, South East Asia, 1944-1945; demobilised as Wg Cdr, 1947; died 1998.
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.
The Education Board was established in November 1992 on the recommendation of the Futures Working Party of the College. Its remit was 'to act as a forum to disseminate information and to act as required on particular items of educational interest in its widest sense' (Education Board: minutes of preliminary meeting, 20 Nov 1992, ref: B24M/1 p. 1). It took reports from the relevant standing committees and discussed those matters arising from their activities that would not normally have received an airing at Council. These included the Examinations, Higher Training, Hospital Recognition, Subspecialty, Continuing Professional Development, Manpower, and Meetings Committees. In 2000, the RCOG put in place a new board structure in order to free-up Council's time to concentrate on strategic and specialty wide issues. The Education Board became one of three boards (along with Standards and Services) that were given executive and decision-making authority and were able to ratify the decisions of reporting committees and groups. They were responsible directly to Council and met quarterly. The remit of the Education Board became: to facilitate the ongoing development of valid, fair and appropriate College examination processes; to promote and facilitate the development of the continuing professional development programme; to facilitate the initiation and development of the distance learning programme and related education initiatives; and to co-ordinate and facilitate the development of education in its widest sense (Finance and Executive Committee: minutes, 4 May 2000, ref: A3/30/4). At this date it had the following reporting committees: Examinations, Continuing Professional Development, Standing Joint RCOG/RCR, Meetings, CAL [Computer Assisted Learning] Editorial Board. In 2002, in order to forge closer ties between examinations and training, a revised Board structure was established and the reporting of the three training committees (Specialist Training, Subspecialty, Trainees) was diverted from the Standards Board to the Education Board. By 2008, the Education Board's remit was as follows: to co-ordinate postgraduate training, assessment and testing of training and accreditation of place of training; to facilitate the continuing development of valid, fair and appropriate College examination processes; to facilitate the initiation and development of distance learning programmes; to co-ordinate and facilitate the development of specialist education, training and assessment in the widest sense, in accordance with the College curricula.
The House Committee met on only a few occasions during 2003 with the following remit: to advise and make recommendations on all matters relating to the care of College buildings including maintenance, health and safety, environmental health and security; to oversee the maintenance of a register of assets and to review the condition of fixtures and fittings, including paintings, furniture and fabrics; to develop, monitor and evaluate space allocation and the use of the building; and to develop and regularly review the domestic and social functions of the College. It reported to the College's Services Board.
The Services Committee was established when Council decided to disband the Services Board in 2003. The new Services Committee took over a large proportion of what had been the Services Boards' responsibilities, and reported to Finance and Executive. Its remit was dated 24th March 2003; the main objective of the committee was to develop and co-ordinate services for Fellows and Members in the British Isles and Overseas. Its broadest terms of reference were to regularly develop and review a strategic plan, in relation to the provision of services by the Facilities Department, the Information Services Department, the Information Technology Department, the Membership Services Department and the Premises Department. More specifically, the Committee was to frame policies for access to, and storage of, rare books and manuscripts, instruments, personal papers and artefacts of historical interest for the benefit of Fellows, Members and suitably accredited visitors. It was also to keep abreast of, and advise upon, the development of computerised services within the College and to ensure that the services themselves were integrated with national developments. Additionally, it was to develop, monitor and evaluate the use of the RCOG website and to frame polices for the development of membership services. Finally, it was to advise and make recommendations concerning all matters relating to the care of the buildings and assets at 27 Sussex Place and 8 Kent Terrace. The Committee met on a quarterly basis from 2003 to 2005. Its existence was short-lived because in 2005 Council ratified the decision for the Services Committee to revert back to its former title and executive status as the Services Board.
The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire was first published in 1902. It was owned by the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire Publishing Company Limited. From 1933 the meetings of the board of directors of the Company took place in the College's premises. In 1950 the ownership of the Journal was acquired by the College and the Company was wound up. The Journal Committee was set up by the College following its acquisition of the Journal in 1950. In 1980 the Committee was reconstituted as a separate Journal Business Committee (renamed the Journal Management Board in 1988) to run the organisational and business aspects of the Journal, and an Editorial Committee to decide editorial policy and function. In 1992 these bodies were renamed the Journal Management Committee and Journal Editorial Board respectively and in 2000 they became BJOG Management Board and BJOG Editorial Board. The Journal has changed its name on several occasions since it was founded. It became The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Commonwealth, from 1975 it was published as British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and, in January 2002 BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The birth of the world's first baby conceived using in vitro fertilisation (IVF), in July 1978, and advances in fertilisation and embryology led to the appointment of a Committee of Inquiry in 1982. Chaired by Baroness Warnock, it was established 'against [a] background of public excitement and concern' about human fertilisation and embryology". The Committee reported in 1984 (the Warnock Report). It recommended the establishment of a new statutory licensing authority to regulate both research and infertility services. In March 1985 the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) founded the Voluntary Licensing Authority for Human in vitro Fertilisation and Embryology (VLA) as an interim measure to regulate work on human in vitro fertilisation until the introduction of government legislation. The authority was given two functions: to grant licences to those wishing to offer infertility treatment; and to grant licences to researchers wishing to work with human gametes (sperm and eggs) and embryos. Applications for licences, accompanied by specific research proposals, were made to the authority by centres involved in such work. A visit was normally then made to the centre by members of the authority, which then made a decision on whether to grant a licence. The Authority was based at the Medical Research Council premises in Park Crescent, London. In 1987, following a period of consultation, the Government published a White Paper, Human Fertilisation and Embryology: A Framework for Legislation. The legislation which subsequently came into being was the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (the HFE Act).
The first meeting of the Joint Standing Committee of the RCOG and RCM took place on 11 May 1988. The objectives of the Committee were to "consider and make recommendations on matters of common interest to parent bodies". It did not have an executive function and reported to the Councils of the RCM and RCOG; meetings took place at least twice a year.
A first RCOG report in 1994 on minimum standards of care in labour attempted to establish guidelines for staffing, equipment and general facilities on the labour ward. Following acceptance of the increased involvement of the consultant obstetrician in the labour ward, the Joint Working Group of the Royal College of Midwives and the RCOG aimed to produce guidance about the essential minimum midwife and medical staff numbers required to support women in labour. The final report was published in 1999 and acknowledged the value of multidisciplinary involvement, making recommendations to improve organisation, practice and result in safer childbirth.
This joint working party was established to explore key issues affecting students' clinical learning experiences and to identify strategies to address them. Their remit was to:
- Review the clinical learning environment in maternity services with particular respect to the recruitment of doctors and midwives.
- Gather national and international research and evidence pertaining to the development and support of a good clinical learning environment.
- Identify and propagate examples of good practice relating to the clinical learning environment and recruitment.
- Develop a collaborative strategy for the development of professional support within the clinical learning environment and enhanced recruitment.
The working party comprised a group of professionals with relevant expertise and experiences encompassing the academic, clinical, practical and organisational aspects of learning environments. The group met on five occasions, from January to September 2006.
The RCOG established this working party, representing the Royal Colleges of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Midwives, Anaesthetists, Paediatrics and Child Health as well as other stakeholder organisations, to develop national standards for maternity care. It had the following remit:
- To review current evidence-based published standards in the area of maternity practice.
- To derive from these documents agreed standards for maternity care, from prepregnancy through to the postnatal period.
- To complete the work within one year.
The final report was published in June 2008.
An international liaison committee of professional organisations and national associations of gynaecologists and obstetricians, UPIGO was formed in 1955. Its objectives were:
- to study, represent and defend the ethical, professional and material interests of obstetricians and gynaecologists before all international authorities,
- to study and to explain the ethical, legal, professional and social problems which occur in these disciplines, according to the particular interest they arouse,
- to establish relations with any appropriate national or international organisation,
- to provide exhaustive literature on the profession of gynaecologist-obstetrician to each member or delegation of members, in order to stimulate progress in the policy of each country in the fields of training of practitioners and the safety of women, as well as that of unborn children,
- to promote the harmonisation of qualifications and conditions of practice for specialists in obstetrics and gynaecology, in order to justify professional migration within the framework of international regulations,
- to promote products or services which will satisfy ethical considerations as well as the Association's expectations of quality.
In July 1988 the College established a working party 'to review current post-graduate activities of the College and to consider the need, feasibility and the format of assessment of the individual's maintenance of skills'. In 1991 this reported that the majority of consultants were not taking advantage of the existing educational opportunities offered by the College. It recommended that the College develop a programme of mandatory Continuing Medical Education (CME) for all its Fellows and Members in active specialist practice. This began in January 1994. The RCOG was the first of the UK Colleges to establish such a programme and also the first to offer it (from January 2000) to overseas members. The programme catered for consultants and other members of career grade staff not in training posts. The scheme was developed and overseen by the CME Committee, which held its first meeting in July 1992, and reported to the Education Board. It was administered by the Postgraduate Education Department. The first 5-year CME cycle was completed in December 1998. In 1998 CME became part of the wider sphere of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and in 1999 the CME Committee changed its name to the CPD Committee. In January 2002 the CME programme also changed its name to the CPD programme. At this date the programme was expanded to take into account not just the continuing medical education needs of obstetricians and gynaecologists, but also their broader professional development (i.e. non-clinical or non-specialist clinical activities). The Postgraduate Education Department was disbanded in October 2003 at which point the CPD Office was transferred to the Clinical Governance and Standards Department.
This area was traditionally the responsibility of the Director of Corporate Affairs. The College employed freelancers for occasional press work until 2000 when they decided to appoint a permanent Press Officer. In 2006 the College set up a Department for Communications and External Affairs, reporting to the Directorate of Corporate Affairs.
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.
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.
Morris Myer Datnow (1901-1962), MB, ChB (Liverpool) 1924, MD 1928, FRCS (Ed) 1932, FRCOG 1939, was born in South Africa and trained at Cape Town University. He completed his medical training in Liverpool, where he became a member of the Liverpool university staff in 1925. There he served successively as Ethel Boyce research fellow, Samuels memorial scholar, demonstrator and sub-curator of the museum and lecturer in clinical obstetrics and gynaecology. He was appointed to the staff of the Women's Hospital, Liverpool, the Liverpool Maternity Hospital and the Royal Southern Hospital. He was married with two children. Morris Datnow became closely associated with William Blair-Bell in the research work which was going on at that time in the department, and was one of the team undertaking basic research into the nature of cancer and the place of chemotherapy in its treatment. He was to become a close friend of Blair-Bell's and was elected to deliver the third Blair-Bell Memorial Lecture in 1940 at the RCOG.
John Martin Munro Kerr (1868-1960), Regius Professor of Midwifery at the University of Glasgow from 1927-1934, was a Foundation Fellow of the College and its first Vice President from 1929-1932.
Bethel Solomons (1885-1965) MB, BCh, BAO (Dublin), MD, FRCP(I), FRCOG, Hon FACS was born in Dublin and spent most of his professional life there. He was master of the Rotunda Hospital and organised the first sterility clinic in Dublin. He was a founder fellow of this College and an honorary fellow of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1946. He died in 1965 of heart failure. The papers relate to Bethel's survey of pathology treatments of the fallopian tube. He delivered his findings at the 10th British Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Belfast, 1936, and published them in `The Conservative Treatment of Pathological Conditions of the Fallopian Tube', in Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire, 43 (1936), pp 619-633.
At the inaugural meeting of the Obstetrical Society of London in December 1858 the Chairman and first President, Edward Rigby, stated that the meeting was for the purpose of inaugurating a society to be devoted to advancing the knowledge of obstetrics and of the diseases of women and children. Membership was open to all practitioners in London and the provinces. During its lifetime the Society published annual volumes of Transactions of its meetings. It met for the last time in July 1907, in which year it was absorbed into the Royal Society of Medicine.
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the Gynaecological Visiting Society (GVS) first met on 24th April 1911. It was the inspiration of William Blair-Bell, Assistant Physician at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. Its aims as set out in its first meeting (ref: S26/1/1) were:
The encouragement and demonstration of scientific research, and the study of methods employed in gynaecological duties.
Two centres to be visited each year in the Spring and Autumn.
A brief record of the meetings to be kept in a book belonging to the Society.
Although other gynaecological societies existed at this time, Blair-Bell felt there was a need for a peripatetic group that could discuss and disseminate information with fellow professionals. The annual visits allowed members to see other hospital departments and view at first hand their colleagues' research activities. With this cross-fertilisation of ideas it was hoped that the appalling statistics of maternal mortality could be tackled.
At a GVS meeting on the 2nd February 1925 several members of the society discussed the founding of a College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The College came into existence in 1929, with Blair-Bell as President. The GVS has continued to work closely with the College and today senior officers of the now Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology are also members of the GVS.
For further information see The Gynaecological Visiting Society 1911-1917 by John Peel, Dorset Press, 1992 (copy at S26/9/17).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Solomon Bender MD, FRCS (Ed), FRCOG, wrote an article on this case for the British Medical Journal in 1965.
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.
Alexander Gray McIntyre graduated as Bachelor of Medicine and Master in Surgery, Edinburgh, 1893; member of the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh; Medical Officer, Glasgow Convalescence Home, Lenzie; Assistant Physician, Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries; died [1939].
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).
William Lowder graduated doctor of medicine, Aberdeen, 1775; licentiate of the College of Physicians, 1786; practised midwifery; lectured at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals; died, 1801.
Chelsea Hospital for Women was founded in 178 King's Road, 1871; moved to Fulham Road, 1883; moved to Dovehouse Street, 1916; in co-operation with Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital formed a combined postgraduate teaching school, 1946, this subsequently became the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; Chelsea Hospital for Women was closed in 1988.
The Bristol Royal Infirmary was founded by Paul Fisher, a wealthy city merchant, 1735; in 1904, Sir George White saved the hospital from a major financial crisis; in 1948 it was acquired by the National Health Service.
The Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (ACLEC) was established in 1991 under the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. The Committee had the general duty of assisting in the maintenance and development of standards in the education, training and conduct of those offering legal services. In the field of legal education and training, its brief was as follows:
- to keep under review the education and training of those who offer to provide legal services.
- to consider the need for continuing education and training for such persons and the form it should take.
- to consider the steps which professional and other bodies should take to ensure that their members benefit from such continuing education and training.
ACLEC was abolished by Statutory Instrument 1999 No.3296. Its functions were taken over by a new Legal Services Consultative Panel within the Lord Chancellor's Department.
The Committee of Inquiry was established in March 1993 "to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into the policies and practices of the Council of Legal Education (CLE) and the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL). The creation of the Committee was partly in response to a large disparity in pass rates between black and ethnic minority students and white students on the Bar Vocational Course (BVC), uncovered by ethnic monitoring of the 1991/1992 intake, and partly in response to the large body of complaints about the course which had been lodged with the General Council of the Bar, and the CLE itself." (Final Report, Apr 1994, Introduction 3.1 p.8). The Inquiry was chaired by Dame Jocelyn Barrow (Deputy Chairman, Broadcasting Standards Council), from whom the short title "Barrow Inquiry" derives. Its members were Ruth Deech (Principal, St Anne's College Oxford), Jo Larbie (Director of Legal Education and Training of the Legal Resources Group), Rajeev Loomba (course leader for the Legal Practice Course, University of Northumbria) and David J Smith (Senior Fellow, Policy Studies Institute). The Inquiry's terms of reference were to identify the reasons for disparities in the level of performance of ethnic minorities on the BVC from 1991/92, to investigate allegations of racial discrimination and to investigate and make recommendations on teaching, assessment and pastoral care of students and for the further development of an equal opportunities policy by the CLE. The Inquiry employed a number of research methods as follows: 1. Statistical analysis, using as a starting point Dr Christopher Dewberry's 1991/1992 analysis of disparities between white and ethnic minority student pass rates; the Inquiry conducted further similar surveys and analyses; 2. Qualitative research, including oral hearings of evidence such as interviews with students, staff, assessors, CLE and General Council of the Bar members, written submissions from interested parties, and comments from students, followed by an analysis by Dr Robin Oakley; 3. Direct observation of teaching and assessment; 4. Collection and analysis of teaching materials relating to the BVC; 5. Following the Interim Report of September 1993, provision of a formal submission from the ICSL/CLE on teaching, assessment and pastoral care; 6. Consideration of the complaints of 29 individual students; 7. Comparison of the BVC with other jurisdictions, in the UK and abroad.
Publications: Equal Opportunities at the Inns of Court School of Law: the Final Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Equal Opportunities on the Bar Vocational Course (April 1994).
The Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) was founded during the Fourth Commonwealth Law Conference in New Delhi in 1971. The idea was initiated by Indian lawyer Dr Laxmi Singhvi, CLEA's first chairman. The Association's objects were to foster high standards of legal education and research in Commonwealth countries, to build up contacts between interested individuals and organizations, and to disseminate information and literature concerning legal education and research. CLEA established its headquarters in the offices of the Legal Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat in Marlborough House, London, and with the Legal Director as its Honorary Secretary and Treasurer. In 1973 it obtained a grant from the Commonwealth Foundation; this funding, plus subscriptions from members, enabled the CLEA to embark on the projects planned on its establishment. It has received further long term grants from the Commonwealth Foundation to continue its activities. CLEA's structure, objectives and functions are set out in its Constitution, adopted soon after its foundation. Membership is open to individuals, schools of law and other institutions concerned with legal education and research. Patrons are appointed from various Commonwealth countries. The affairs of the Association are managed by an Executive Committee, drawn from the Commonwealth regions, which meets annually; its actions are reviewed at 5 yearly General Meetings, the first of which was held in Edinburgh during the Fifth Commonwealth Law Conference in 1977. There is an Advisory Panel in the United Kingdom. The administration of the Association was carried out by a chairman and two secretaries, one in London and one abroad. In 1990 the office of chairman was replaced by a president and executive chairperson (since renamed vice president). The President may be elected from any part of the Commonwealth; the Vice President must be established in the UK. In 1994 a South Asian regional chapter was formed.
Working records of the Library were produced in the conduct of business. Gate signing-in books were created at a rate of about 1 per month from 1975 to 1998.