Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and
narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be
acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth" [Mark Twain].
The Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a group of surgeons from around the United Kingdom which travels to various hospitals and surgical departments around the world and in the UK. These are academic and clinical meetings and the purpose is to encourage educational and surgical exchanges
"In our age such great usefulness redounds to the physician from his travels that none puts much faith in the authority of the physician who has not set foot outside his native land, and, although each may have at home in abundance those things which are necessary for medical instruction, nevertheless they ought to be strengthened or increased by a comparison with things abroad.
There is a vast delight and pleasure in gazing upon foreign lands and fields, mountains and rivers, observing the benignity of Nature's variety everywhere, the different conditions of the sick in homes and in hospitals with their great number of beds, which can readily be seen here and there, examining the methods for treating the patients, enjoying the conversation of the learned men, and calling forth their experiences, and visiting the laboratories, the furnaces of the chemists, the pharmacies and the unguent shops."
[Thomas Bartholin, Danish anatomist (1616 -1680) on medical travel]
In 1924 Sir Berkeley (later Lord) Moynihan held a clinical meeting in
Leeds for twelve British surgeons whom he then entertained to dinner.
From these roots evolved the present-day Travelling Surgical Society
(TSS).
The current membership consists of about fifty surgeons of whom thirty
are in active practice. It is distinguished by numerous titles,
honours, and Presidencies of learned organisations including Royal
Colleges. One active and two senior members hold honours (two knights
and the other a baron). The membership also boasts some unusual
accolades, including an Honored Member of the American Association of
Clinical Anatomists, a Lambeth Doctorate of Medicine (awarded by the
Archbishop of Canterbury), a Kentucky Colonel, and a Chevalier de
l'Ordre National du Merite. Our current membership even includes a
Minister of Health to the current UK government.
The past presidents of the Travelling Surgical Society are:
1936 Sir Berkeley (later Lord) Moynihan
1937 to 1938 Sir Cuthbert Wallace
1952 to 1972 Sir Clement Price Thomas
1973 to 1978 Mr R W Nevin
1978 to 1988 Mr Robert Cox
1990 to 1992 Mr Alan Green
1992 to 1994 Professor Ivan Johnston
1994 to 1997 Mr William Shand
1998 to 2000 Mr James Thomson
2001 to 2003 Sir Robert Shields
2003 to 2006 Mr Geoffrey Glazer
2006 to 2009 Mr David Ralphs
2009 to present Prof Pierre Guillou