The 1942 Club

At an informal dinner held in January 1942 a group of eminent professors decided to form a small club composed of those holding university chairs in medicine, surgery or obstetrics and who were interested in the future of clinical teaching and academic medicine, particularly in light of the inception of the NHS. The limited membership club thus founded began as a small group of 14, but membership steadily increased, reaching 184 in 1992. Originally membership was limited to heads of strictly clinical departments but has since been extended to professors of paraclinical disciplines. Each meeting of the Club is devoted, after general business has been dealt with, to the discussion of a particular topic of current medico-political or medico-academic importance, ranging from the foundation and operation of the National Health Service and the Royal Commission on Medical Education to issues in the funding of research, the undergraduate curriculum, examination procedures, postgraduate training, medicine and the media, etc. The Club has periodically made reports and recommendations, eg. to Royal Commissions, but has consistently avoided becoming involved in salary negotiations. Further details of the history of the Club can be found in Section A. of the collection.