Foreign travel

Platt was an international figure in orthopaedic surgery and travelled extensively. He had been inspired to pursue a career in orthopaedic surgery after visiting Boston in 1913, and his connections with American orthopaedic surgery remained strong. During the 1950s, Platt was engaged on a number of lecture tours for the British Council, during which he gave orthopaedic lectures and visited hospitals and universities in South America, Israel, South Africa and India. Platt wrote reports to the British Council on his impressions of orthopaedic surgery and surgical education in these countries, and used papers in this series to compile such reports. Platt also visited many orthopaedic institutions in the USA and Canada, partly as a result of his strong personal connections with orthopaedic surgeons, made primarily during the second world war. As a member of international surgical and orthopaedic societies Platt also made a number of visits abroad, in particular with the IFSC (see PLA/9/2) and SICOT. After his retirement from orthopaedic practice, Platt continued to travel widely. Many of Platt's travels are represented in this series, some briefly, but some in great depth. This series would form a useful source for researchers interested in the development of surgery in the countries visited by Platt or in the development of international medical cooperation.

This series is in three sub-series, one contains manuscript travel diaries, the second contains typescript diaries and the third contains loose papers, photographs and correspondence.