Graphical version

King's College London College Archives

Committees of Guy's Hospital Medical School


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0100 G/M

Held at: King's College London College Archives

Title: Committees of Guy's Hospital Medical School

Date(s): 1852-1985

Level of description: Series of Guy's Hospital Medical School records

Extent: approximately 150 volumes

Name of creator(s): Guy's Hospital Medical College

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Guy's Hospital was founded in 1721 by Thomas Guy, a bookseller and publisher in London who made a large fortune from his business. As required by his will, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1725 establishing the Corporation of Governors for Guy's Hospital. The Governors administered the estates acquired by the hospital and managed the hospital through a committee (the Court of Committees) of twenty-one men named by Guy, including four doctors. Meetings of the General Court were short and occupied by formal business. The management of the two hospitals was at first closely associated, with Guy's seen as an annexe to Thomas's. All the arrangements and procedures at St Thomas's were adopted by Guy's, and there were some joint Governors and they had the same Treasurer until 1839.

Before 1925 there was no formal constitution in existence for the Medical School. The two principal committees of the Medical School were the School Meeting, which dealt with School policy, and the Staff Meeting, which recommended staff appointments to the General Court or the Court of Committee. Important matters of policy and finance and all recommendations for appointments to the visiting staff of the hospital were discussed at Staff Meetings, which were called as the need arose. Originally attended by clinical staff, all senior members of staff were later called to attend. The annual School Meeting, presided over by the Treasurer, was attended by all the teachers in the School. At these meetings the Treasurer made a brief statement of the financial position and announced the value of the 'share' for the preceding year. The 'share' was the method of renumeration of the clinical staff until 1925, when it was replaced by a nominal salary. The Dental Council dealt with student entry and the general business of the Dental School, and the Medical Council dealt with student entry relating to the Medical School. Financial matters were overseen and regulated by the Finance Committee. The Medical Examining Council was established in 1846 to select which students should become dressers, clinical clerks, assistants and resident obstetric clerks. It became known as the Medical Council from 1866.

Under a new Scheme of Management, which became operative in October 1925, the constitution of the Medical School was reorganised and placed on a formal footing. A Board of Governors was created and made responsible directly to the Court. A School Council was established (taking the responsibilities of the School Meeting) to take responsibility for the administration of the school and policy, including appointing officers and teachers, subject to the powers of the Governors. All university professors and readers, heads of non-clinical departments were members, and representatives of the Medical Committee were elected to the Council. The School Council later became known as the Academic Board. The School buildings continued to legally owned by the Hospital Governors

In 1941 the school set up a Post-war Planning Committee, which later amalgamated with a similar committee set up by the Governors of the Hospital. The School Governors became known as the Council of Governors from 1947, and on the foundation of the National Health Service in 1948 the Medical School became a separate legal entity from the Hospital.

The Medical Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals reunited as the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS) in 1982. The new institution was then enlarged by the amalgamation of the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery with Guy's Dental School on 1 August 1983 and the addition on the Institute of Dermatology on 1 August 1985. In 1990 King's College London began discussions with the United Schools and, following formal agreement to merge in 1992 and the King's College London Act 1997, the formal merger with UMDS took place on 1 August 1998. The merger created three new schools: the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Schools of Medicine, of Dentistry and of Biomedical Sciences, and reconfigured part of the former School of Life, Basic Medical & Health Sciences as the new School of Health & Life Sciences.

The Evelina Children's Hospital was founded by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1869, in memory of his wife Evelina. The hospital became closely associated with Guy's Hospital, and was closed in 1975.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of Committees of Guy's Hospital Medical School, 1852-1985, comprising minutes of the School Governors, later Council of Governors, 1925-1982, with agendas and related papers, including reports, financial estimates and correspondence; minutes and papers of the Finance Committee, 1903-1982; minutes of the School Council, later Academic Board, 1925-1982, with related papers and agendas, 1946-1982; minutes of the Standing Committee concerning financial relations between the Hospital and the Medical School, later the Financial Relations Committee, 1907-1939, including accounts;

minutes of Guy's Hospital Medical (Examining) Council, 1852-1989, with related papers; minutes and papers of 'Annual November meetings', [1863]-1869, later School Meetings, 1871-1981; minutes of the Endowments Grant Sub-Committee, 1951-1978, with related papers; minutes of Staff Meetings, 1879-1925; minutes of Occasional Meetings, 1879-1896, 1902-1903, 1915-1923; minutes of the Junior (Medical) Staff Committee, 1942-1985; minutes of the Junior Dental Staff Committee minutes, 1971-1979; minutes and papers of the Building Committee, 1895-1982; minutes of the Post-graduate Council minutes, 1919-1924;

papers of the Ethical Committee, 1976-1984, recording approval of investigations using human subjects; minutes of the Catering Sub committee, 1969-1981; minutes of the Audio Visual Aids Committee, 1967-1982; minutes of the Co-Ordinating Committee to make recommendations for improving catering, residential and recreational accommodation for students, 1945-1946; minutes of the Clinical Research Committee, 1914-1978, with related papers and agendas, 1930-1950; minutes of the Pre-Medical Co-Ordinating Committee, 1948-1955, and Dental Co-Ordinating Committee, 1949;

minutes and papers of Guy's Hospital Medical School and King's Joint Policy Committee, 1970-1975; minutes of the Joint Advisory Committee for Radioactive Isotopes, 1954-1960; minutes of the Combined Hospitals Committee, (Guy's, St Thomas's and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical Schools), 1934-1936, with related papers; minutes and papers of the Wills Library Committee, 1878-1954; papers and correspondence of the Committee to consider relations between the School and Hospital, 1880; minutes of the Dental House Committee and Junior Medical Studies Committee, 1939-1944; minutes of the Junior Medical Studies Committee, 1948, 1953;

minutes and papers of the Dental Committee, later Dental Council, 1889-1982; minutes of the Dental Staff Meeting, 1912-1929; minutes and papers of the Dental School Finance Committee, 1922-1982; minutes and papers of Dental Studies Committees (senior and junior), 1946-1979; minutes of the Dental School Post-War Planning Committee, 1942-1945; minutes of the Dental School Clinical Teaching Committee, 1925-1944; Dental Department standing orders, 1904-1936; minutes of the Prosthetics Committee, 1942-1945; minutes of the Dental School Research Committee, 1938-1943.

minutes of Evelina Children's Hospital, 1952-1965.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in the scope and content.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive and Corporate Record Services.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Summary guide entry on-line.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Transferred from Guy's Hospital Medical School Library in 2002.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

King's College London Archives holds later committee records of the Medical School after its merger with St Thomas' Hospital Medical School to form United Medical and Dental Schools (Reference: UMDS).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Julie Tancell as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: March 2002


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Dental education | Medical education | Higher science education
Educational administrative structure | Educational organizations
Educational finance | Economics of education
Educational administration
Educational management

Personal names

Corporate names
Guy's Hospital Dental School
Guy's Hospital Medical School
St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School
St Thomas' Hospital Medical School | London
United Dental and Medical Schools

Places