Past Visits

The Travelling Surgical Society has visited most major European centres of surgical excellence, particularly in capital cities, since it was founded in 1924. It has also travelled behind the Iron Curtain, now thankfully disbanded.

The first countries to be visited were Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. In recent years the Society has spread its wings to Israel, South Africa, the United States, Australasia, and most recently China (including Hong Kong) which was visited with the Royal College of Surgeons.

The College also organised the one farthest afield, to South East Asia, where Singapore and Darwin were visited in 2004. Foreign visits have been undertaken almost every year since 1925, apart from a hiatus due to the Second World War and the experiment of two home visits in 1932/3.

In 1932, instead of crossing the Channel, the Society merely went over the border to Edinburgh and was so impressed that the following year it again confined itself to these shores, going to Newcastle on Tyne.

In 1958 it was decided to have two visits, one overseas and the other a home meeting (in Portsmouth). This arrangement is now well established annually and in the spring a week or moreis spent abroad, whilst in September a couple of days are spent at the workplace of one of the Society’s members.

Thus has the Society gained a truly cosmopolitan flavour of surgical practice throughout the United Kingdom as well as in Europe (as intended by the founders of the TSS) and subsequently indeed of the whole world though Russia, India, Canada and South America have yet to be visited, as have many smaller countries.

Those that have been visited are listed below in chronological order, by country (in capitals) and town for the foreign and home meetings respectively. Further details are to be found in the sections on International Visits and Home Visits.

Year Overseas Home
1924 Leeds (founding meeting with Lord Moynihan)
1925 HOLLAND
1926 FRANCE
1927 SWITZERLAND
1928 GERMANY
1929 AUSTRIA and Munich
1930 GERMANY and Strasbourg
1931 BELGIUM
1932 Edinburgh
1933 Newcastle upon Tyne
1934 SWEDEN and DENMARK
1935 HOLLAND
1936 GERMANY
1937 GERMANY
1938 FRANCE
1947  – Oxford (resurrection meeting)
1948  – Manchester
1949 NORWAY
1950 FRANCE
1951 FRANCE
1952 HOLLAND
1953 SPAIN
1954 IRELAND (Dublin) …and Belfast (in the Spring)
1955 ITALY
1956 BELGIUM
1957 PORTUGAL
1958 TURKEY Portsmouth
1959 SWITZERLAND
1960 AUSTRIA
1961 SWEDEN Norwich
1962 ITALY
1963 YUGOSLAVIA
1964 FRANCE Birmingham
1965 GERMANY
1966 DENMARK
1967 POLAND Manchester
1968 SPAIN Cardiff
1969 GREECE Edinburgh
1970 HOLLAND Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar
1971 LISBON (Autumn) Newcastle (Spring)
1972 NORWAY London (Westminster Hospital)
1973 ITALY Sheffield
1974 FRANCE Birmingham
1975 HUNGARY London (St. Bartholomew’s Hospital)
1976 SPAIN Belfast
1977 London (Hammersmith Hospital in the Spring)
1978 GERMANY Edinburgh
1979 BELGIUM Leeds
1980 FRANCE London (Guy’s Hospital)
1981 USA (Virginia) Oxford
1982 ITALY Liverpool
1983 HOLLAND London (Middlesex Hospital)
1984 AUSTRIA Norwich
1985 Lake District (Spring) and RAF Halton (Autumn)
1986 SWITZERLAND Cambridge
1987 SPAIN and Gibraltar London (Homerton Hospital)
1988 FINLAND Manchester
1989 GERMANY Newcastle
1990 ITALY Nottingham
1991 Newport
1992 FRANCE Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar
1993 HUNGARY Bury St. Edmunds
1994 SPAIN Canterbury
1995 ISRAEL Edinburgh
1996 PORTUGAL Southampton
1997 DENMARK Belfast
1998 BELGIUM Chester
1999 SOUTH AFRICA London (St.Mark’s and St.Mary’s Hospitals)
2000 DENMARK and Malmo Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar
2001 ITALY Tunbridge Wells
2002 CZECH REPUBLIC Norwich
2003 USA (Washington) Sheffield
2004 SINGAPORE and Darwin Leeds
2005 HOLLAND Plymouth
2006 GERMANY Ashford
2007 CHINA and HONG KONG London (extraordinary meeting February) & Salisbury (Autumn)
2008 GREECE Glasgow
2009 ICELAND Northwick Park / St Marks London
2010 CUBA and BARBADOS Nottingham
2011 SWITZERLAND Aberdeen
2012 USA Leicester
2013 IRELAND Birmingham
2014 FRANCE London
2015 SPAIN Middlesborough
2016 TORONTO London (St George’s)
2017 BELGIUM Cambridge
2018 BUDAPEST Cardiff