Records relating to the Financial Management of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Records relating to the financial management of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, including policy files, correspondence relating to various appeals and memorials, signed accounts and accounting records, investment and pension records, and subscriptions from Fellows and Members.

This collection is comprised of:

RCOG/F1 - Annual audited accounts, 1968-2008

RCOG/F2 - Trial balances, 1969-1977

RCOG/F3 - Records of investments and of the Investment Advisory Panel, 1954-2002

RCOG/F4 - Journal books, 1974-1983

RCOG/F5 - Correspondence files of the Chief Accountant, 1969-1999

RCOG/F6 - Correspondence of the Accountant relating to pension schemes for College staff, 1969-1976

RCOG/F7 - Records of financial summaries of meetings, 1979-1982

RCOG/F8-F15 - Records of appeals and memorial funds, 1932-1987

RCOG/F16 - Accounts and ledgers of College Regional Councils, 1954-1970

RCOG/F17 - Records relating to bequests to the College, 1952-1980

RCOG/F18 - Papers relating to the review of the College's accounting system and organisation, 1970

RCOG/F19 - College accounts and receipts, 1926-1947

RCOG/F20 - College general accounts ledgers, 1940-1944

RCOG/F21 - College General Fund ledgers, 1947-1986

RCOG/F22 - College payments cash books, 1947-1971

RCOG/F23 - College General Fund receipt books, 1947-1970

RCOG/F24 - College general accounts journal, 1963-1970

RCOG/F25 - College Special Fund ledgers, 1931-1995

RCOG/F26 - College Special Funds cash books, 1951-1972

RCOG/F27 - College Special Funds journal, 1966-1970

RCOG/F28 - Records of the Research and Development Fund, 1966-1978

RCOG/F29 - College salaries books, 1946-1965

RCOG/F30 - Fellows' and Members' subscriptions and fees cash books, 1929-1967

RCOG/F31 - Fellows and Members day book, 1972

RCOG/F32 - Annual audited accounts of the Joint Committee on Contraception, 1976-1995

RCOG/F33 - Financial records of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1953-1971

RCOG/F34 - Records of the 'Dig Deep' Appeal for the construction of the College Education Centre, 2001

RCOG/F35 - Meeting papers of the Trustees of the RCOG Pension Scheme, 2000-2004

RCOG/F36 - Programmes, reports and papers relating to College fundraising appeals, 1949-1970

RCOG/F37 - College pension scheme reports and papers, 1997

RCOG/F38 - College pension scheme quarterly reports, prepared by Baillie Gifford & Co., 1992-2000

RCOG/F39 - Meeting papers of the Trustees of the RCOG Pension Scheme, 1988-2000

The mission of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is to set standards to improve women's health and the clinical practice of obstetrics and gynaecology both in the UK and across the world. One of the principal means of achieving this aim is through the College's provision of education, training, assessment and professional development.

An Executive Committee was established as a standing committee of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1926. By June 1930 it had combined with another standing committee, the Finance and Establishment Committee, to form the Finance and Executive Committee.

The office of Honorary Treasurer was created by Council under the 1929 bye-laws of the College, which state that the Honorary Treasurer's duties were to be as follows:

to pay all monies received by him on behalf of the College into a College account;

to keep accounts of all monies received and expended and report monthly to the Finance and Executive Committee;

to prepare quarterly reports to Council;

and to maintain an Income and Expenditure account and balance sheet.

At an Executive Committee meeting in October 1929, it was decided that the Treasurer be given authority to arrange with the Auditors for one of their clerks to keep the necessary financial books of the College for £50 per annum. The President and Honorary Secretary were also authorised to obtain any clerical assistance found necessary. From this beginning the Accounts Department, renamed the Finance Department in 1999, developed. The Department, headed by the Chief Accountant, and more latterly by the Head of Finance, offers financial support for the activities of the Honorary Treasurer and is responsible for banking all income which includes subscriptions, examination and course fees, and sales from publications; paying all the College's purchase invoices; co-ordinating the budgeting process; and preparing the annual statutory accounts.

The natural arrangement of files and series is retained where possible, although some composite series exist which were brought together from different transfers of material in order to facilitate access.

Permission is required from College senior management for external access to College records less than twenty years old: all other financial records are open at the discretion of the College Archivist and by appointment, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. Email: archives@rcog.org.uk

Internal transfers from the College Secretary's Office, the Honorary Treasurer, and the Finance Department.

Details of contents of parts of the collection are available on request. Email archives@rcog.org.uk

Details of some parts of the collection are available through the AIM25 network: please note that these are not current or updated descriptions and all enquiries should be made to the College Archivist.

Care is required in the handling of all ledgers and volumes.

Record description compiled by Penny Bonning, Archivist, in May 2011.

Photocopies are available at the discretion of the College Archivist.

Copyright lies with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and permission to reproduce material should be sought via the College Archivist.

Earlier records appear to have been retained without much attempt to weed or appraise for permanent value. Others have been retained as samples of records destroyed. Since the mid-1990s the practice has been for accounting records to be transferred to the Archives at the beginning of each financial year and destroyed after six years in accordance with Finance Regulations. In 1999, an agreement was made between the Chief Accountant and the College Archivist to deal with records not covered by the regulations, such as correspondence files.

The early imposition of a subject classification scheme for financial records has meant that provenance cannot always be established. The records in this collection of material appear to have been transferred to the College Archives from a variety of College departments, including the College Secretary's Office, the Honorary Treasurer, and the Finance Department and its predecessors. Honorary Treasurer's files in particular, prior to the creation of a file system for this officer's files in the 1970s, will be found mixed with records of the Accounts Department.

Additions to this collection are expected on a regular basis according to College record-keeping policies, comprising of pension records, financial correspondence, and material relating to College appeals.

Signed annual accounts of the College are available at RCOG/H12.

Records of the RCOG Honorary Treasurer may be found at RCOG/A1, A4 and A6.

Records of the Finance and Executive Group of the RCOG are available at RCOG/A3.

Other material relating to the Joint Committee on Contraception may be found at RCOG/J.