British Orthopaedic Association Archive

Governance records, including Foundation minutes and administrative records (1917-1958), Executive minutes (1918-1982), Council minutes (1983-2019), Annual General Meeting minutes (1944-2004), Committee, subcommittee and working party minutes (1976-2007), Constitution and rules (1921-1955), Handbooks and annual reports (1928-2018).
Material from BOA meetings and events; Annual meetings (1941-2005), Spring and Autumn meetings (1924-1996), Joint or combined meetings with international orthopaedic organisations (1929-1998), Special meetings (1957-1986), Annual congress (1999-2019), Education and training workshops (1972-1995)
Administrative records, including paperwork and correspondence from the office of the BOA President (1923-2008)
Material related to allied organisations who have worked and collaborated with BOA. Includes speciality societies (1975-1988), the Royal College of Surgeons (1940-1993), the British Orthopaedic Society (1894-1970s), other orthopaedic organisations (1919-2002), medical organisations (1963-2008), professional associations (1977-1991), government and public bodies (1986-1989), and BOA’s Royal Patron the Queen of England Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1976-2006).
Includes official BOA journals, such as British Orthopaedic News (1989-2012), BOA awards and prizes, such winning essays submitted to the Robert Jones Award and Association Prize (1950-2017) and paperwork relating to the American-British-Canadian Travelling Fellowship (1989-1996).
Material from BOA’s work and collaboration with specialist orthopaedic hospitals and units (c1900-2004), orthopaedic clubs (1919-2003), such as the Robert Jones Dining Club, material related to the research and writing of BOA history (1983-1993), and copies and biographies of BOA members and significant orthopaedic surgeons (1918-2019)
The archive holds photographs, including photographs of BOA members and events and clinical images (1918-2014), and audio and video recordings of BOA events and medical and clinical talks and procedures (1954-2008)
BOA members and orthopaedic surgeons have personal archives in the collection. Includes papers of Naughton Dunn (1905-1980), Professor Gathorne Robert Girdlestone (1918-1973), Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke (1946-1970), John S Hopkins (1947-2017), and Roland Barnes (1960-1970). Also included in the archive is a collection of journal articles and offprints relating to orthopaedics, medicine, health, and medical science.

Orthopaedic surgery or orthopaedics emerged as a discrete discipline in the United Kingdom in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1894, the British Orthopaedic Society was formed: it had 31 members and met quarterly for four years before disbanding. A consequence of the injuries inflicted upon soldiers and civilians during the First World War was an advancement in medical treatment and science, particularly in orthopaedics. The contribution of Britain’s orthopaedic surgeons in the war effort was acknowledged with the knighthood of the Welsh orthopaedic surgeon and co-founder of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) Robert Jones (1857-1933) in 1917.
On 28 November 1917, Jones and fourteen other orthopaedic surgeons met for dinner at the Café Royal in London where they agreed to form the BOA. The group included Muirhead Little (1854-1935), who was the most senior orthopaedic surgeon present, as chair; the two other hosts were Jones and Colonel Thomas Horrocks Openshaw (1856-1929). The other attendees included Harold Stiles (1863-1946), Reginald Cheyne Elmslie (1878-1940), Naughton Dunn (1884-1939), Evan Laming Evans (1871-1945), Ernest William Hay Groves (1872-1944), Harry Platt (1886-1986), David McCrae Aitken (1876-1956), William Henry Trethowan (1882-1934), Walter Rowley Bristow (1882-1947), Arthur Sidney Bankart (1879-1951), Gathorne Robert Girdlestone (1881-1950), and Robert Osgood (1921-1986).
On 2 February 1918, the inaugural meeting of the BOA was held on 2 February 1918 at Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital in Roehampton. Little took on the role of chairman, with Jones as vice chairman and Platt as secretary. One of the main decisions taken at the meeting was that the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery, hitherto the official publication of the American Orthopaedic Association, would become the same for the BOA.
In the years following the war, the BOA continued to drive momentum in the development and advancement of orthopaedics in the UK. In 1919, Jones and G. R. Girdlestone published a proposal in the British Medical Journal for a National Orthopaedic Scheme focused on curing children with acute orthopaedic conditions. In February 1921, the first hospital in the UK dedicated to orthopaedic surgery, the Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital, was set-up. Others soon followed, such as Biddulph Grange Orthopaedic Hospital for children in North Staffordshire and Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exter. In 1934, Manchester Royal infirmary opened its first Orthopaedic Department and Girdlestone was given the first professorship in Orthopaedics in the United Kingdom, at Oxford in 1937. Many of the UK’s first orthopaedic hospitals and specialist units were managed or staffed by BOA members, and the association was directly involved in monitoring the treatment and care provided.
World War Two invariably led to another period in which British orthopaedic surgery was forced to adapt and develop rapidly to ensure that UK medical science was prepared to deal with the onset of another global war. In 1939, BOA member Sir Harold Arthur Thomas Fairbank (1876-1961) was appointed consultant advisor in orthopaedic surgery to the Ministry of Health, for which was knighted. In 1940, Reginald Watson-Jones (1902-1972), who served as BOA President 1952-53, wrote ‘Fractures and Joint Injuries’, a milestone publication in orthopaedic literature which was considered an essential text for surgeons treating injured servicemen and civilian casualties. In 1942, the BOA published a Memorandum on Fracture and Accident Services which put forward reasons for and methods by which orthopaedic surgeons should have primary responsibility for the treatment of fractures in British hospitals.
There was slow national recovery in the years after the end of the War, but members of the Association continued to press forward the development of Orthopaedics. The National Health Service was introduced in 1948, and this was also the year that the British volume of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) was first published, under the editorship of Watson-Jones. The chairman and editor of the journal were appointed to the Executive Committee of the Association in 1949, and the British Editorial Society was formed to manage affairs of the journal in 1953. Also in 1948 the second joint meeting of the American, British and Canadian Orthopaedic Associations was held in Quebec and there was the first visit of American-British-Canadian (ABC) Travelling Fellows to the United States and Canada, with the return visit of North American surgeons in 1949. In June 1952, the third combined meeting of the Orthopaedic Associations of the English-Speaking World was held in London, including, for the first time, the associations of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The development of specialist Orthopaedic hospitals continued after the War. In 1949 the Royal Cripples’ Hospital, Birmingham became Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and in 1952 an orthopaedic unit opened at the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate. In 1955 the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital, Oxford became the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and the Hip Centre at Wrightington was established by John Charnley (1911-1982) in 1958. In 1959 the Association published a Memorandum on Accident Services and established a subcommittee on Specialist Orthopaedic Hospitals. The same year, the Platt report on Arrangements for the Welfare of Ill Children in Hospital was published and Roland Barnes (1907-1988) became the first Professor of Orthopaedics in Glasgow.
There has been a steady increase in numbers from the 20 original Members of the Association in 1918. There were 100 Members by 1924, 200 in 1928 and by 1943 the total had risen to almost 400. In 1947 the Membership fees were set at seven guineas for Fellows and five guineas for Members. Associate Membership for surgeons in training was introduced in 1948 and the Constitution of 1952 limited the number of Fellows to 150, elected from the Membership. In the same year, fees of £10 to £20 for companies exhibiting at the annual meetings were introduced. By 1968, fifty years after the foundation, there were over 1200 Members and the registration fee for the Annual Meeting was £1. In 1993 there were over 2600 Members, and as of 2022 the total is over 4700.
The location of BOA’s offices has changed numerous times, but it has had a long association with the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London. In 1944 they were sited in 45 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, next door to the College, with an annual rent of £100. In 1956 there was a move to the third floor of the Royal College of Surgeons building itself. In 1994 the Association moved again to offices in the adjoining Nuffield College, which were refurbished using funds from the Cutner bequest, thanks to the efforts of BOA President Sir Rodney Sweetnam (1927-2013). As of 2022, the BOA has been situated at 38-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields.
As well as the physical association of the Association offices with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, there has been a steady increase in influence with all the Royal Colleges. Sir Harry Platt became a Council Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1940 and was the first orthopaedic surgeon to be President, in 1954. In 1991, the BOA was a founding member of the Federation of Surgical Speciality Associations, formed to give increased influence with the Royal Colleges. It was not until 1995 that Sir Rodney Sweetnam became the second orthopaedic surgeon to be appointed President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, followed by Hugh Phillips (1940-2005) in 2004: in the same year, Ian Ritchie was the first orthopaedic surgeon to be President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Clare Marx was not only the first female President of the BOA in 2008 but went on to be the first female President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2014.
The Association has been promoting education and research in orthopaedics since the foundation. The British Orthopaedic Research Society and the Naughton Dunn Orthopaedic Club were founded in 1963. In 1972 the first Annual BOA Instructional Course for Trainees was held and in 1974 the Advisory Bureau for Overseas Trainees was founded by the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1978 the inaugural meeting of the Association of Professors of Orthopaedic Surgery with thirteen members was held in Edinburgh. In 1986, the first Advanced Instructional Course for Consultants was held. In 1993, the Senate of Royal Surgical Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland was founded, and in 1996 introduced mandatory monitoring of Continuing Professional Development for surgeons.
In response to the increasing work of the association, sub-committees have been formed to concentrate on specific issues. As early as 1945, the Surgical Appliances Subcommittee was formed and by 1969 was stressing the importance of performance specifications for implants, including bone cements. At the same time, increasing sub-specialisation has resulted in the formation of a number of sub-speciality societies. In 1984 the British Scoliosis Society, the British Association for Surgery of the Knee and the British Orthopaedic Foot Surgery Society were the first sub-speciality Societies to become affiliated to the Association. In 1990 the Board of Affiliated Societies was established: this later became the Board of Specialist Societies. The British Orthopaedics Trainees Association was founded in 1986 and the British Orthopaedic Specialists Association (for Non-Consultant Career Grade Surgeons) in 2003.
In 1938 the BOA Benevolent Fund was established for the benefit of members and their families who were in financial difficulty. In 1989, the Wishbone Appeal was established, later to become an independent Trust, to raise funds for orthopaedic research and the first Great Hip Walk was held. In 2003 the Wishbone Trust was succeeded by the British Orthopaedic Foundation. In 2007 Joint Action was adopted as the formal fundraising arm of the Association.
In 1989 British Orthopaedic News was first published by the Association, with Chris Ackroyd as Editor. It was replaced by the Journal of Trauma and Orthopaedics in 2012. The 50th anniversary of the first publication of the British edition of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery was in 1998: it split from the parent body in 2013 and became the Bone and Joint Journal. In the same year, the BOA website went online for the first time.
There has been a pattern of increasing national influence as the Association has grown in size and it became clear that more information about numbers was required in order to argue for the needs of orthopaedic surgery with the Department of Health. In 1986, an Orthopaedic Regional Adviser was appointed in each region and Orthopaedic Linkmen were appointed in hospitals to assist in data collection. In 1989 the Association published ‘The Management of Trauma in Great Britain’ and an ‘Advisory Booklet on Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Services’. In 1992, the Association organised the first census of orthopaedic manpower in the United Kingdom: this became an annual event, at the instigation of Fred Heatley, in 1994. In 2003 the National Joint Registry began operation and in 2009 Keith Willett was appointed as the first National Clinical Director for Trauma Care. Where once Government Departments would approach the Royal Colleges of Surgeons for advice on matters concerning trauma and orthopaedics, they now come directly to the Association.
The Association has had important international influence since the foundation, and this has been maintained. In 1972, the Association was a founding member of the Monospecialist Orthopaedic Section of the Union Européenne de Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) and sent two representatives to the first meeting. In 1977 the Association became a representative on the Coordinating Committee of Orthopaedic Associations of the Common Market (COCOMAC) and World Orthopaedic Concern (WOC) was established. In 1993, the first meeting of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Trauma (EFORT) was held in Paris at the instigation of Michael Freeman and Jacques Duparc. George Bentley became President of EFORT in 2004 and the Annual EFORT Congress was held in London for the first time in 2014.
Charitable status was established in 1962 and in 1997 the Association became a Company Limited by Liability with the publication of a new Constitution and Rules. In 1974, John Fairbank held the first one-year Presidency of the Association and in 1980 the Executive Committee was renamed Council.

Records are open to the public, subject to the overriding provisions of relevant legislation, including data protection laws.
24 hours’ notice is required to access photographic material.

The archive was deposited with the Borthwick Institute by the British Orthopaedic Association on 6 August 2021

Orthopaedic surgery or orthopaedics emerged as a discrete discipline in the United Kingdom in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1894, the British Orthopaedic Society was formed: it had 31 members and met quarterly for four years before disbanding. A consequence of the injuries inflicted upon soldiers and civilians during the First World War was an advancement in medical treatment and science, particularly in orthopaedics. The contribution of Britain’s orthopaedic surgeons in the war effort was acknowledged with the knighthood of the Welsh orthopaedic surgeon and co-founder of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) Robert Jones (1857-1933) in 1917.
On 28 November 1917, Jones and fourteen other orthopaedic surgeons met for dinner at the Café Royal in London where they agreed to form the BOA. The group included Muirhead Little (1854-1935), who was the most senior orthopaedic surgeon present, as chair; the two other hosts were Jones and Colonel Thomas Horrocks Openshaw (1856-1929). The other attendees included Harold Stiles (1863-1946), Reginald Cheyne Elmslie (1878-1940), Naughton Dunn (1884-1939), Evan Laming Evans (1871-1945), Ernest William Hay Groves (1872-1944), Harry Platt (1886-1986), David McCrae Aitken (1876-1956), William Henry Trethowan (1882-1934), Walter Rowley Bristow (1882-1947), Arthur Sidney Bankart (1879-1951), Gathorne Robert Girdlestone (1881-1950), and Robert Osgood (1921-1986).
On 2 February 1918, the inaugural meeting of the BOA was held on 2 February 1918 at Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital in Roehampton. Little took on the role of chairman, with Jones as vice chairman and Platt as secretary. One of the main decisions taken at the meeting was that the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery, hitherto the official publication of the American Orthopaedic Association, would become the same for the BOA.
In the years following the war, the BOA continued to drive momentum in the development and advancement of orthopaedics in the UK. In 1919, Jones and G. R. Girdlestone published a proposal in the British Medical Journal for a National Orthopaedic Scheme focused on curing children with acute orthopaedic conditions. In February 1921, the first hospital in the UK dedicated to orthopaedic surgery, the Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital, was set-up. Others soon followed, such as Biddulph Grange Orthopaedic Hospital for children in North Staffordshire and Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exter. In 1934, Manchester Royal infirmary opened its first Orthopaedic Department and Girdlestone was given the first professorship in Orthopaedics in the United Kingdom, at Oxford in 1937. Many of the UK’s first orthopaedic hospitals and specialist units were managed or staffed by BOA members, and the association was directly involved in monitoring the treatment and care provided.
World War Two invariably led to another period in which British orthopaedic surgery was forced to adapt and develop rapidly to ensure that UK medical science was prepared to deal with the onset of another global war. In 1939, BOA member Sir Harold Arthur Thomas Fairbank (1876-1961) was appointed consultant advisor in orthopaedic surgery to the Ministry of Health, for which was knighted. In 1940, Reginald Watson-Jones (1902-1972), who served as BOA President 1952-53, wrote ‘Fractures and Joint Injuries’, a milestone publication in orthopaedic literature which was considered an essential text for surgeons treating injured servicemen and civilian casualties. In 1942, the BOA published a Memorandum on Fracture and Accident Services which put forward reasons for and methods by which orthopaedic surgeons should have primary responsibility for the treatment of fractures in British hospitals.
There was slow national recovery in the years after the end of the War, but members of the Association continued to press forward the development of Orthopaedics. The National Health Service was introduced in 1948, and this was also the year that the British volume of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) was first published, under the editorship of Watson-Jones. The chairman and editor of the journal were appointed to the Executive Committee of the Association in 1949, and the British Editorial Society was formed to manage affairs of the journal in 1953. Also in 1948 the second joint meeting of the American, British and Canadian Orthopaedic Associations was held in Quebec and there was the first visit of American-British-Canadian (ABC) Travelling Fellows to the United States and Canada, with the return visit of North American surgeons in 1949. In June 1952, the third combined meeting of the Orthopaedic Associations of the English-Speaking World was held in London, including, for the first time, the associations of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The development of specialist Orthopaedic hospitals continued after the War. In 1949 the Royal Cripples’ Hospital, Birmingham became Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and in 1952 an orthopaedic unit opened at the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate. In 1955 the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital, Oxford became the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and the Hip Centre at Wrightington was established by John Charnley (1911-1982) in 1958. In 1959 the Association published a Memorandum on Accident Services and established a subcommittee on Specialist Orthopaedic Hospitals. The same year, the Platt report on Arrangements for the Welfare of Ill Children in Hospital was published and Roland Barnes (1907-1988) became the first Professor of Orthopaedics in Glasgow.
There has been a steady increase in numbers from the 20 original Members of the Association in 1918. There were 100 Members by 1924, 200 in 1928 and by 1943 the total had risen to almost 400. In 1947 the Membership fees were set at seven guineas for Fellows and five guineas for Members. Associate Membership for surgeons in training was introduced in 1948 and the Constitution of 1952 limited the number of Fellows to 150, elected from the Membership. In the same year, fees of £10 to £20 for companies exhibiting at the annual meetings were introduced. By 1968, fifty years after the foundation, there were over 1200 Members and the registration fee for the Annual Meeting was £1. In 1993 there were over 2600 Members, and as of 2022 the total is over 4700.
The location of BOA’s offices has changed numerous times, but it has had a long association with the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London. In 1944 they were sited in 45 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, next door to the College, with an annual rent of £100. In 1956 there was a move to the third floor of the Royal College of Surgeons building itself. In 1994 the Association moved again to offices in the adjoining Nuffield College, which were refurbished using funds from the Cutner bequest, thanks to the efforts of BOA President Sir Rodney Sweetnam (1927-2013). As of 2022, the BOA has been situated at 38-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields.
As well as the physical association of the Association offices with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, there has been a steady increase in influence with all the Royal Colleges. Sir Harry Platt became a Council Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1940 and was the first orthopaedic surgeon to be President, in 1954. In 1991, the BOA was a founding member of the Federation of Surgical Speciality Associations, formed to give increased influence with the Royal Colleges. It was not until 1995 that Sir Rodney Sweetnam became the second orthopaedic surgeon to be appointed President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, followed by Hugh Phillips (1940-2005) in 2004: in the same year, Ian Ritchie was the first orthopaedic surgeon to be President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Clare Marx was not only the first female President of the BOA in 2008 but went on to be the first female President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2014.
The Association has been promoting education and research in orthopaedics since the foundation. The British Orthopaedic Research Society and the Naughton Dunn Orthopaedic Club were founded in 1963. In 1972 the first Annual BOA Instructional Course for Trainees was held and in 1974 the Advisory Bureau for Overseas Trainees was founded by the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1978 the inaugural meeting of the Association of Professors of Orthopaedic Surgery with thirteen members was held in Edinburgh. In 1986, the first Advanced Instructional Course for Consultants was held. In 1993, the Senate of Royal Surgical Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland was founded, and in 1996 introduced mandatory monitoring of Continuing Professional Development for surgeons.
In response to the increasing work of the association, sub-committees have been formed to concentrate on specific issues. As early as 1945, the Surgical Appliances Subcommittee was formed and by 1969 was stressing the importance of performance specifications for implants, including bone cements. At the same time, increasing sub-specialisation has resulted in the formation of a number of sub-speciality societies. In 1984 the British Scoliosis Society, the British Association for Surgery of the Knee and the British Orthopaedic Foot Surgery Society were the first sub-speciality Societies to become affiliated to the Association. In 1990 the Board of Affiliated Societies was established: this later became the Board of Specialist Societies. The British Orthopaedics Trainees Association was founded in 1986 and the British Orthopaedic Specialists Association (for Non-Consultant Career Grade Surgeons) in 2003.
In 1938 the BOA Benevolent Fund was established for the benefit of members and their families who were in financial difficulty. In 1989, the Wishbone Appeal was established, later to become an independent Trust, to raise funds for orthopaedic research and the first Great Hip Walk was held. In 2003 the Wishbone Trust was succeeded by the British Orthopaedic Foundation. In 2007 Joint Action was adopted as the formal fundraising arm of the Association.
In 1989 British Orthopaedic News was first published by the Association, with Chris Ackroyd as Editor. It was replaced by the Journal of Trauma and Orthopaedics in 2012. The 50th anniversary of the first publication of the British edition of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery was in 1998: it split from the parent body in 2013 and became the Bone and Joint Journal. In the same year, the BOA website went online for the first time.
There has been a pattern of increasing national influence as the Association has grown in size and it became clear that more information about numbers was required in order to argue for the needs of orthopaedic surgery with the Department of Health. In 1986, an Orthopaedic Regional Adviser was appointed in each region and Orthopaedic Linkmen were appointed in hospitals to assist in data collection. In 1989 the Association published ‘The Management of Trauma in Great Britain’ and an ‘Advisory Booklet on Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Services’. In 1992, the Association organised the first census of orthopaedic manpower in the United Kingdom: this became an annual event, at the instigation of Fred Heatley, in 1994. In 2003 the National Joint Registry began operation and in 2009 Keith Willett was appointed as the first National Clinical Director for Trauma Care. Where once Government Departments would approach the Royal Colleges of Surgeons for advice on matters concerning trauma and orthopaedics, they now come directly to the Association.
The Association has had important international influence since the foundation, and this has been maintained. In 1972, the Association was a founding member of the Monospecialist Orthopaedic Section of the Union Européenne de Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) and sent two representatives to the first meeting. In 1977 the Association became a representative on the Coordinating Committee of Orthopaedic Associations of the Common Market (COCOMAC) and World Orthopaedic Concern (WOC) was established. In 1993, the first meeting of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Trauma (EFORT) was held in Paris at the instigation of Michael Freeman and Jacques Duparc. George Bentley became President of EFORT in 2004 and the Annual EFORT Congress was held in London for the first time in 2014.
Charitable status was established in 1962 and in 1997 the Association became a Company Limited by Liability with the publication of a new Constitution and Rules. In 1974, John Fairbank held the first one-year Presidency of the Association and in 1980 the Executive Committee was renamed Council.

A reprographics service is available to researchers subject to the access restrictions outlined above. Copying will not be undertaken if there is any risk of damage to the document. Copies are supplied in accordance with the Borthwick Institute for Archives' terms and conditions for the supply of copies, and under provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Permission to reproduce images of documents in the custody of the Borthwick Institute must be sought.

Orthopaedic surgery or orthopaedics emerged as a discrete discipline in the United Kingdom in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1894, the British Orthopaedic Society was formed: it had 31 members and met quarterly for four years before disbanding. A consequence of the injuries inflicted upon soldiers and civilians during the First World War was an advancement in medical treatment and science, particularly in orthopaedics. The contribution of Britain’s orthopaedic surgeons in the war effort was acknowledged with the knighthood of the Welsh orthopaedic surgeon and co-founder of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) Robert Jones (1857-1933) in 1917.
On 28 November 1917, Jones and fourteen other orthopaedic surgeons met for dinner at the Café Royal in London where they agreed to form the BOA. The group included Muirhead Little (1854-1935), who was the most senior orthopaedic surgeon present, as chair; the two other hosts were Jones and Colonel Thomas Horrocks Openshaw (1856-1929). The other attendees included Harold Stiles (1863-1946), Reginald Cheyne Elmslie (1878-1940), Naughton Dunn (1884-1939), Evan Laming Evans (1871-1945), Ernest William Hay Groves (1872-1944), Harry Platt (1886-1986), David McCrae Aitken (1876-1956), William Henry Trethowan (1882-1934), Walter Rowley Bristow (1882-1947), Arthur Sidney Bankart (1879-1951), Gathorne Robert Girdlestone (1881-1950), and Robert Osgood (1921-1986).
On 2 February 1918, the inaugural meeting of the BOA was held on 2 February 1918 at Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital in Roehampton. Little took on the role of chairman, with Jones as vice chairman and Platt as secretary. One of the main decisions taken at the meeting was that the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery, hitherto the official publication of the American Orthopaedic Association, would become the same for the BOA.
In the years following the war, the BOA continued to drive momentum in the development and advancement of orthopaedics in the UK. In 1919, Jones and G. R. Girdlestone published a proposal in the British Medical Journal for a National Orthopaedic Scheme focused on curing children with acute orthopaedic conditions. In February 1921, the first hospital in the UK dedicated to orthopaedic surgery, the Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital, was set-up. Others soon followed, such as Biddulph Grange Orthopaedic Hospital for children in North Staffordshire and Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exter. In 1934, Manchester Royal infirmary opened its first Orthopaedic Department and Girdlestone was given the first professorship in Orthopaedics in the United Kingdom, at Oxford in 1937. Many of the UK’s first orthopaedic hospitals and specialist units were managed or staffed by BOA members, and the association was directly involved in monitoring the treatment and care provided.
World War Two invariably led to another period in which British orthopaedic surgery was forced to adapt and develop rapidly to ensure that UK medical science was prepared to deal with the onset of another global war. In 1939, BOA member Sir Harold Arthur Thomas Fairbank (1876-1961) was appointed consultant advisor in orthopaedic surgery to the Ministry of Health, for which was knighted. In 1940, Reginald Watson-Jones (1902-1972), who served as BOA President 1952-53, wrote ‘Fractures and Joint Injuries’, a milestone publication in orthopaedic literature which was considered an essential text for surgeons treating injured servicemen and civilian casualties. In 1942, the BOA published a Memorandum on Fracture and Accident Services which put forward reasons for and methods by which orthopaedic surgeons should have primary responsibility for the treatment of fractures in British hospitals.
There was slow national recovery in the years after the end of the War, but members of the Association continued to press forward the development of Orthopaedics. The National Health Service was introduced in 1948, and this was also the year that the British volume of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) was first published, under the editorship of Watson-Jones. The chairman and editor of the journal were appointed to the Executive Committee of the Association in 1949, and the British Editorial Society was formed to manage affairs of the journal in 1953. Also in 1948 the second joint meeting of the American, British and Canadian Orthopaedic Associations was held in Quebec and there was the first visit of American-British-Canadian (ABC) Travelling Fellows to the United States and Canada, with the return visit of North American surgeons in 1949. In June 1952, the third combined meeting of the Orthopaedic Associations of the English-Speaking World was held in London, including, for the first time, the associations of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The development of specialist Orthopaedic hospitals continued after the War. In 1949 the Royal Cripples’ Hospital, Birmingham became Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and in 1952 an orthopaedic unit opened at the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate. In 1955 the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital, Oxford became the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and the Hip Centre at Wrightington was established by John Charnley (1911-1982) in 1958. In 1959 the Association published a Memorandum on Accident Services and established a subcommittee on Specialist Orthopaedic Hospitals. The same year, the Platt report on Arrangements for the Welfare of Ill Children in Hospital was published and Roland Barnes (1907-1988) became the first Professor of Orthopaedics in Glasgow.
There has been a steady increase in numbers from the 20 original Members of the Association in 1918. There were 100 Members by 1924, 200 in 1928 and by 1943 the total had risen to almost 400. In 1947 the Membership fees were set at seven guineas for Fellows and five guineas for Members. Associate Membership for surgeons in training was introduced in 1948 and the Constitution of 1952 limited the number of Fellows to 150, elected from the Membership. In the same year, fees of £10 to £20 for companies exhibiting at the annual meetings were introduced. By 1968, fifty years after the foundation, there were over 1200 Members and the registration fee for the Annual Meeting was £1. In 1993 there were over 2600 Members, and as of 2022 the total is over 4700.
The location of BOA’s offices has changed numerous times, but it has had a long association with the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London. In 1944 they were sited in 45 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, next door to the College, with an annual rent of £100. In 1956 there was a move to the third floor of the Royal College of Surgeons building itself. In 1994 the Association moved again to offices in the adjoining Nuffield College, which were refurbished using funds from the Cutner bequest, thanks to the efforts of BOA President Sir Rodney Sweetnam (1927-2013). As of 2022, the BOA has been situated at 38-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields.
As well as the physical association of the Association offices with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, there has been a steady increase in influence with all the Royal Colleges. Sir Harry Platt became a Council Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1940 and was the first orthopaedic surgeon to be President, in 1954. In 1991, the BOA was a founding member of the Federation of Surgical Speciality Associations, formed to give increased influence with the Royal Colleges. It was not until 1995 that Sir Rodney Sweetnam became the second orthopaedic surgeon to be appointed President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, followed by Hugh Phillips (1940-2005) in 2004: in the same year, Ian Ritchie was the first orthopaedic surgeon to be President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Clare Marx was not only the first female President of the BOA in 2008 but went on to be the first female President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2014.
The Association has been promoting education and research in orthopaedics since the foundation. The British Orthopaedic Research Society and the Naughton Dunn Orthopaedic Club were founded in 1963. In 1972 the first Annual BOA Instructional Course for Trainees was held and in 1974 the Advisory Bureau for Overseas Trainees was founded by the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1978 the inaugural meeting of the Association of Professors of Orthopaedic Surgery with thirteen members was held in Edinburgh. In 1986, the first Advanced Instructional Course for Consultants was held. In 1993, the Senate of Royal Surgical Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland was founded, and in 1996 introduced mandatory monitoring of Continuing Professional Development for surgeons.
In response to the increasing work of the association, sub-committees have been formed to concentrate on specific issues. As early as 1945, the Surgical Appliances Subcommittee was formed and by 1969 was stressing the importance of performance specifications for implants, including bone cements. At the same time, increasing sub-specialisation has resulted in the formation of a number of sub-speciality societies. In 1984 the British Scoliosis Society, the British Association for Surgery of the Knee and the British Orthopaedic Foot Surgery Society were the first sub-speciality Societies to become affiliated to the Association. In 1990 the Board of Affiliated Societies was established: this later became the Board of Specialist Societies. The British Orthopaedics Trainees Association was founded in 1986 and the British Orthopaedic Specialists Association (for Non-Consultant Career Grade Surgeons) in 2003.
In 1938 the BOA Benevolent Fund was established for the benefit of members and their families who were in financial difficulty. In 1989, the Wishbone Appeal was established, later to become an independent Trust, to raise funds for orthopaedic research and the first Great Hip Walk was held. In 2003 the Wishbone Trust was succeeded by the British Orthopaedic Foundation. In 2007 Joint Action was adopted as the formal fundraising arm of the Association.
In 1989 British Orthopaedic News was first published by the Association, with Chris Ackroyd as Editor. It was replaced by the Journal of Trauma and Orthopaedics in 2012. The 50th anniversary of the first publication of the British edition of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery was in 1998: it split from the parent body in 2013 and became the Bone and Joint Journal. In the same year, the BOA website went online for the first time.
There has been a pattern of increasing national influence as the Association has grown in size and it became clear that more information about numbers was required in order to argue for the needs of orthopaedic surgery with the Department of Health. In 1986, an Orthopaedic Regional Adviser was appointed in each region and Orthopaedic Linkmen were appointed in hospitals to assist in data collection. In 1989 the Association published ‘The Management of Trauma in Great Britain’ and an ‘Advisory Booklet on Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Services’. In 1992, the Association organised the first census of orthopaedic manpower in the United Kingdom: this became an annual event, at the instigation of Fred Heatley, in 1994. In 2003 the National Joint Registry began operation and in 2009 Keith Willett was appointed as the first National Clinical Director for Trauma Care. Where once Government Departments would approach the Royal Colleges of Surgeons for advice on matters concerning trauma and orthopaedics, they now come directly to the Association.
The Association has had important international influence since the foundation, and this has been maintained. In 1972, the Association was a founding member of the Monospecialist Orthopaedic Section of the Union Européenne de Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) and sent two representatives to the first meeting. In 1977 the Association became a representative on the Coordinating Committee of Orthopaedic Associations of the Common Market (COCOMAC) and World Orthopaedic Concern (WOC) was established. In 1993, the first meeting of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Trauma (EFORT) was held in Paris at the instigation of Michael Freeman and Jacques Duparc. George Bentley became President of EFORT in 2004 and the Annual EFORT Congress was held in London for the first time in 2014.
Charitable status was established in 1962 and in 1997 the Association became a Company Limited by Liability with the publication of a new Constitution and Rules. In 1974, John Fairbank held the first one-year Presidency of the Association and in 1980 the Executive Committee was renamed Council.

Further accruals expected.

Published