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History of the RSM

Feature of the month - December
Inter-Allied Conferences
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Inter-Allied Conferences

The Inter-Allied Conferences on War Medicine were held at No.1 Wimpole Street, the house of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The first conference was held on 7 December 1942, and the last was held on 8 July 1945. The Society offered accommodation for the 24 conferences held during that period, convened the meetings, and undertook their general organisation including ensuring all adequate wartime security measures.

The object of the conferences was “the interchange and communication of medical experiences in the Field and of the practical application of medicine to the needs of warfare, and for the exposition of the general principles of administration and organization of the medical services.” Over 6,500 officers of the Allied Medical Services attended.

Delegates heard papers given by speakers from both sides of the Atlantic on the medical and surgical aspects of individual campaigns and episodes of the war, experiences connected with the D-Day landings and the liberation of the German concentration camps, and a variety of medical subjects including malaria, venereal diseases, infective hepatitis, mental disorders, tropical diseases, blood transfusion, and the problems encountered during the evacuation of personnel.

This letter [PDF 128k], dated 19 July 1945, was sent to Surgeon Rear Admiral Gordon Gordon-Taylor, RSM President from 1944 to 1946, from Major General Paul Hawley, Chief Surgeon of the United States Forces European Theatre of Operations during World War II, thanking the Society for its part in the conferences.

Bibliography
Inter-Allied Conferences on War Medicine 1942 – 1945. Convened by the Royal Society of Medicine. Edited by Major-General Sir Henry Letheby Tidy and J.M. Browne Kutschbach. London, Staples Press, 1947.

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