Association of British Ophthalmologists

Volumes of minutes containing annual alphabetical indexes of ophthalmologists who joined the Association of British Ophthalmologists, together with subject indexes.

1937-1946

1 box

These two volumes of minutes were given to the Wellcome Institute by Mr B A Pratt, Antiquarian Bookseller, in June 1993. They were purchased by Mr Pratt with other books from the British Medical Association (BMA) at Sotheby's on 31 July 1991 (lot number 1076). (Acc No 474).

The Association was started in 1937 following dissatisfaction amongst ophthalmologists with the current arrangements for charging patients (many hospitals were giving free prescriptions). Also it was felt that the National Ophthalmic Treatment Board needed further support, that women should not be excluded from ophthalmic benefit, that the Ophthalmic Committee of the British Medical Association was inadequate and that ophthalmologists needed to conduct their own medico-political affairs. Inevitably, one of the issues which concerned this body throughout the early 1940s was planning for a National Eye Service. In 1946 the Association amalgamated with the reconstituted Faculty of Ophthalmologists.

Bound copies of minutes given to the BMA library by Dr Grey Turner of the BMA, who presumably received them because of the close links of the Association of British Ophthalmologists and BMA. They are not the top, signed versions, but the carbon copies, with pasted in printed extracts from the rules.