Minute Books of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Volumes of minutes of committees and working parties of the College, as well as joint committees and working parties of the College with outside bodies. Each volume contains the minutes, frequently signed by the chairman, of two or more committees of roughly the same period.

This collection consists of the following:

RCOG/T1 - Minutes of the House Sub-committee; Library Committee; Cervical Smears Sub-committee; Salaries of College Staff Sub-committee; and Working Party on the Recruitment and Training of Nurses, 1934-1961

RCOG/T2 - Minutes of the Standing Joint Committee of the three Royal Colleges; and the Journal Committee, 1941-1961

RCOG/T3 - Minutes of the Scientific Advisory Committee; and Building Committee, 1950-1962

RCOG/T4 - Minutes of the External Affairs Committee; and Sub-committee to investigate the use of Analgesics in Labour by Midwives, 1933-1949

RCOG/T5 - Minutes of the Maternity Committee; Articles of Association Revision Sub-committee; and Regional Board Obstetricians, 1929-1948

RCOG/T6 - Minutes of the Procedure and Publication Committee; Diploma Sub-committee; Hospitals Sub-committee; Tetanus Sub-committee; Sub-committee on the Health of Women War Workers from the Gynaecological Aspect; Meetings with representatives of the London teaching schools; Ad Hoc Committee on Emoluments and Conditions of Service of Obstetrical Consultants; and Internal Vaginal Tampon Sub-Committee, 1930-1943

RCOG/T7 - Minutes of the Consultants Training Sub-committee; Leverhulme Research Committee; Maternity Hospital Construction Report Committee; Hospital Construction Committee; Committee on Institutional Versus Domiciliary Midwifery; and Maternity Unit Planning Committee, 1945-1960

RCOG/T8 - Minutes of the Committee on Human Fertility; Meeting between President Gilliatt, Sir Eardley Holland, Dr Yates and Dr Lewis Faning; Joint RCOG/Population Investigation Committee of the Eugenics Society and University of London Institute of Child Health into Maternity Services; Demobilisation Committee; Marking Sub-committee; and Nutrition Committee, 1944-1953

RCOG/T9 - Minutes of the Population Investigation Committee of the Eugenics Society and University of London Institute of Child Health into Maternity Services; Demobilisation Committee; Marking Sub-committee; and Nutrition Committee, 1950-1963

RCOG/T10 - Minutes of the RCOG/British Paediatric Association Joint Committee on Neo-natal Mortality; RCOG/BPA Joint Standing Committee on Prematurity; and RCOG/BPA Joint Committee, 1943-1968

RCOG/T11 - Minutes of the Museum Committee; Appeals Committee; Committee on Membership without Examination; Ladies Appeal Sub-committee; Ladies Committee; and Hospital Recognition Sub-committee, 1945-1965

RCOG/T12 - Minutes of the Joint Sub-committee of the Medical Research Councils Committee on Analgesia in Midwifery and the RCOGs Anaesthetics Committee for Clinical Trials of Trilene Inhalers; and Sub-committee to consider the regulations of the General Medical Council in relation to the medical curriculum (1947), 1951-1955

RCOG/T13 - Minutes of the Standard Maternity Hospital Report Committee; Grantly Dick Read Sub-committee; and Toxaemia Committee, 1947-1968

RCOG/T14 - Minutes of the Maternity and Infant Health Services Committee; Questionnaire Sub-committee; and Dominions Sub-committee, 1943-1946

RCOG/T15 - Minutes of the Overseas Policy Committee; and General Practitioner Maternity Unit Committee, 1960-1964

RCOG/T16 - Minutes of the Scottish Standing Committee; and Ad hoc Committee to consider trends in the development of Obstetrics and Gynaecology as a specialty, 1950-1968

RCOG/T17 - Minutes of the Family Planning Sub-committee; RCOG-RCGP Contraception and Family Planning Committee; and Ad hoc Committee on Relief of Pain in Labour, 1971-1975

RCOG/T18 - Minutes of the Sub-specialisation Advisory Group; Perinatal Pathology Sub-committee; Working Party on the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Mortality; and Working Party on Screening for Cervical Cancer, 1984-1987

RCOG/T19 - Minutes of the Congress Committee; and Working Party to Consider the Platt Report, 'A Reform of Nursing Education', 1965-1967

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.

At the First Annual Meeting of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in May 1930, the Executive Committee established a Finance, Examination, and Procedure and Publication Committee to begin the organisation of the new College. By 2007, the standing committees of the RCOG amounted to some 35 committees and boards, which carried out the decision-making work of the College, supported by the College management departments. These committees were established to formulate policy in relation to the particular functions and interests of the College.

From the College's earliest years, joint committees and working groups were set up at the behest of one or more of the medical colleges or bodies to discuss matters of mutual concern. Minutes were usually kept and distributed to all participants, and published reports were frequently produced. A Committee Secretary from the Administration Department serviced the RCOG's contribution to these joint committees and working groups, maintaining the College's own records of proceedings.

By committee or working party, retaining the natural arrangement of files and series where possible.

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

Internal transfers from the Administration 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 minute books.

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.

Duplicate and routine administrative material is removed where applicable by the College Archivist.

These books contain the minutes of more than one College committee, joint committee or working party. The practice of maintaining multi-purpose minute books was discontinued in 1987. For cataloguing purposes, this separate sub-fonds was created to record these minute books, and records of the various committees may be found elsewhere among the records of the RCOG.

No additions to this collection are expected.

For related papers of working parties and sub-committees of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, see RCOG/M.