British Society for the History of Medicine

The British Society for the History of Medicine (BSHM) is an umbrella organisation for History of medicine societies throughout the United Kingdom. It has grown from the original four affiliated societies to twenty affiliated societies in 2016. The society holds its Congress on alternate years in centres around the UK, with the Poynter Lecture being held on alternate years in London.

The BSHM was founded in 1965 with four original societies - The History of Medicine Society at The Royal Society of Medicine, London (formally section), the Osler Club of London, the then Faculty of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London and the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine. The first president of the BSHM was Douglas Guthrie, an Edinburgh surgeon who had later become a successful and well known medical historian. He had been the driving force in establishing the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine in 1948, and he was also elected first president of that society. Guthrie's reputation as a medical historian was enhanced by the publication of his major work A History of Medicine.

Members of affiliated societies become members of the BSHM. Most of these are from the world of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and nursing. In 2016 the following societies were affiliated:

The BSHM Congresses have taken place at centres throughout the UK. This takes the form of a two- or three-day meeting where keynote lectures are delivered and peer-reviewed papers and posters are presented.

The lectures are named for Dr. Noël Poynter, past president of BSHM, who was Director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine from 1964 to 1973. He made a number of important contributions to the study of the history of medicine and his influence was felt throughout the world. Poynter devoted much time and energy to societies devoted to the study of the history of medicine. He was a prime mover in the founding of the Faculty of the History of Medicine of the Society of Apothecaries in 1958. He was an active member of the Société Internationale d’Histoire de la Médecine, contributing to its reorganisation. He went on to become Secretary-General and then President of the International Academy of the History of Medicine. His links with American historians led to his appointment to the editorial board of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. Poynter was a regular contributor to journals and author of a series of books, many of which dealt with medicine in Tudor and Stuart times. These included The Selected Writings of William Clowes (1544-1608), A Seventeenth Century Doctor and His Patients: John Symcott, William Harvey: Lectures on the Whole of Anatomy. In 1961 he published A Short History of Medicine, a brief account of the evolution of medicine aimed at a younger readership, while Medicine and Man (1971) addressed social aspects of the history of medicine. He founded and then edited the journal Medical History from 1957 until 1973.

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