Westminster Hospital Medical School
Encyclopedia
The Westminster Hospital Medical School was formally founded in 1834 by George Guthrie
George James Guthrie
George James Guthrie was an English surgeon, born in London of Scottish parents. He was admitted to membership in the Royal College of Surgeons in 1801. As army surgeon, he served in the Peninsular campaign, and his work there won the praise ot the Duke of Wellington...

, an ex-military surgeon - although students had been taken on at Westminster Hospital
Westminster Hospital
Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded....

 almost from the hospital's foundation in 1719 (the traditional name at the Westminster was "cubs").

The hospital and medical school moved to larger buildings several times in the decades that followed, leading to conflict among the staff on several occasions. Guthrie's forceful urgings on retaining the location of the hospital and school on one occasion resulted in an argument climaxing in a pistol duel between two surgeons (though each missed each other).

One early Westminster student was John Snow
John Snow (physician)
John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered to be one of the fathers of epidemiology, because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, England, in 1854.-Early life and education:Snow was born 15 March...

, later the founder of modern epidemiology.

In 1905, the teaching of pre-clinical subjects ended at Westminster, and moved to King's College. The school was taken over by the army in 1914 to train pathologists for the war effort. Student numbers and the school suffered as a result, and it was only after 1920 that numbers improved.

In 1984, Westminster Hospital Medical School merged with local rivals Charing Cross Hospital Medical School
Charing Cross Hospital Medical School
Charing Cross Hospital Medical School is the oldest of the constituent medical schools of Imperial College School of Medicine.-History:...

 to form Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School
Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School
Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School existed as a legal entity for 13 years, as the midpoint of a series of mergers which strategically consolidated the many small medical schools in west London into one large institution under the aegis of Imperial College LondonIn 1984, Charing Cross...

. This move was part of a general series of mergers in the London medical schools in the early 1980s. Westminster Hospital
Westminster Hospital
Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded....

 moved to the site of St Stephen's Hospital on Fulham Road in Chelsea in 1993, and changed its name to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is a public hospital located on Fulham Road, in the Chelsea area of London, England. It is managed by the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and opened in May 1993.-History:...

. In 1997, CXWMS merged with the National Heart and Lung Institute at the Royal Brompton Hospital, and Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...

, whose medical department was St Mary's Hospital Medical School
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
St Mary's is the youngest of the constituent schools of Imperial College, London, founded in 1854 as part of the new hospital in Paddington. During its existence in the 1980s and 90s, it was the most popular medical school in the country, with an application to place ratio of 27:1 in 1996.St Mary's...

. The new institution was called Imperial College School of Medicine
Imperial College School of Medicine
The Imperial College School of Medicine is the medical school of Imperial College London in England, and one of the United Hospitals....

, and was at the time the largest medical school in the UK.

Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner

The Shrove Tuesday Dinner started in 1940 during the Blitz at the old Westminster Hospital. Students and house staff decided to have dinner to alleviate the oppressive mood. A senior member of staff was invited to address the assembled doctors and whilst he was talking a caricature was sketched on the tablecloth by one of his audience. It was cut out, passed round, signed and mounted and started the unbroken tradition that has evolved into the Shrove Tuesday Final Year Dinner.

The event is held in March every year and it is a chance to look back on the last six years before finalists put their heads down for finals revision. The dinner is specifically for the year but other doctors and friends are allowed to attend the after-dinner festivities. So the dinner is quite unique as it is very intimate with just final years and has very quirky traditions such as the caricature (all of which are displayed in the basement of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital), and more recently, the music video, in which the professors send up a popular song.
Year Speaker Speciality
2011 Dr Mike Schachter Pharmacology & Faculty Senior Tutor
2010 Prof Patrick Venables Professor of Rheumatology
2009 Prof Geoffrey Pasvol Professor of Infection and Tropical Medicine
2008 Mr Robin Touquet Emergency Medicine
2007 Miss Jenny Higham Obstetrician annd Gynaecologist
2006 Prof John MacDermot Head of Undergraduate Medicine
2005 Prof Averil Mansfield Vascular Surgery
2004 Prof John F Laycock Endocrine Physiology
2003 Mr Rosin Consultant General Surgeon
2002 Dr C Bunker Consultant Dermatologist
2001 Dr Iain Lindsay Consultant Histopathologist
2000 Mr James Scott Orthopaedic Surgeon
1999 Dr Neil Soni Consultant Anaesthetist
1998 Prof Phillip J Steer Obstetrician
1997 Dr J Collins Physician
1996 Mr JM Thomas Oncological Surgeon
1995 Dr Richard Straughton Consultant Dermatologist
1994 Dr Ronald Zeegan Physician & Sub-Dean
1993 Mr JEH Pendower Dean
1992 Prof C Wastell Surgeon
1991 CP Hugh-Jones
1990 Dr AC Branfoot Histopathologist
1989 TW Glenister
1988 Dr B Bazzard Consultant Physician
1987 Dr Peter Fleming Cardiologist
1986 Dr Bob Phillips Radiotherapist
1985 Dr J Gleeson Radiologist
1984 Dr P Emerson Physician
1983 Dr Joe Connolly Consultant Psychiatrist
1982 Dr FB Gibberd Neurologist
1981 Mr David L Evans Orthopaedic Surgeon
1980 Dr Lavinia W Loughridge Consultant Renal Physician
1979 Dr Handley MT Coles Consultant Paediatrician
1978 John Bernard Wyman Dean, Anaesthetist
1977 Prof Harold Ellis
Harold Ellis (professor)
Harold Ellis CBE FRCS is Emeritus Professor of Surgery in the University of London and currently a professor in the Department of Anatomy & Human Sciences at the King's College London School of Medicine. He qualified as a doctor from the University of Oxford in July 1948, the same month the...

Surgeon
1976 Dr Ian M Anderson Consultant Paediatrician
1975 Mr PD Trevor-Roper Consultant Ophthalmologist
1974 Dr RIS Bayliss Consultant Physician
1973 Prof Douglas H Mackenzie Pathologist
1972 Dr JG Humble Haematologist
1971 Dr CJ Gavey Physician
1970 CE Drew ESQ Thoracic Surgeon
1969 Prof Malcolm DMilne Physician
1968 Prof B Lacey Microbiologist
1967 Prof GSW Organe Anaesthetist
1966 Mr F Dudley Hart Physician
1965 Mr FA d\'Abreu Surgeon
1964 Mr GH Macnab Surgeon
1963 Mr D Walker Ashcroft Otorhinolaryngologist
1962 Mr HE Harding Orthopaedic Surgeon
1961 Mr R Cox Surgeon
1960 Mr ES Lee Surgeon
1959 Dr Robert Machray Anaesthetist
1958 Prof NF Maclagan Pathologist
1957 Dr SP Meadows Physician
1956 Dr Peter J Kerley
Peter Kerley
Sir Peter Kerley CVO was a radiologist from Dundalk, Ireland and a graduate of University College Dublin . He spent a year training in radiology in Vienna. He obtained his M.D. from the University of Ireland, in 1939. He was Director of Radiology at the Westminster Hospital and was also affiliated...

Radiologist
1955 Dr JL Franklin Dermatologist
1954 Mr EP Brockman Orthopaedic Surgeon
1953 Dr FM Allchin Radiotherapist
1952 Sir Clement Price Thomas Surgeon
1951 Dr. Ivan Magill
Ivan Magill
Sir Ivan Whiteside Magill was an Irish born anaesthetist who is famous for his involvement in much of the innovation and development in modern anaesthesia....

Anaesthetist
1950 Dr WE Lloyd Physician
1949 Mr A Goodwin Obstetrician and Gynaecologist
1948 Mr AC Bell Obstetrician and Gynaecologist
1947 Prof RJV Pulvertaft Clinical Pathologist
1946 Dr HT Brown Dermatologist
1945 Mr AF MacCallan Ophthalmic Surgeon
1944 Sir Arnold Scott Physician
1943 Sir Adolphe Abrahams Physician
1942 Mr Gerald Thomas Mullaly Surgeon
1941 Sir Ernest Rock Carling Surgeon
1940 Sir Stanley Woodwark Physician
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