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1. Origins
2. The First Societies
3. National Organisations

1. Origins

The rise of the medical benevolent societies in the United Kingdom reflected the development among professions and trades of Friendly Societies that are mutual aid organisations formed voluntarily by individuals to protect members against debts incurred through illness, death or old age. They have their origins in the burial societies amongst the artisans of Ancient Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages the Craft Guilds extended these to illness. The Friendly Societies that arose in the 17th and 18th centuries went further and attempted to define the magnitude of the risks and the scale of members' contributions.

No medical benevolent society has been traced to the 17th century but during the late 18th and early 19th centuries a number were formed. Their foundation reflected the advances in medicine, including the organisation of its practitioners. Many medical societies were formed in the 18th century for the scientific advancement of the profession, the provision of medical libraries and the encouragement of social exchanges between their members. A number of the early scientific societies concerned themselves with benevolent matters affecting their members and conversely some benevolent societies held regular scientific meetings.

2. The First Societies

The first two medical societies formed solely for benevolent purposes were both established in 1786; the Essex and Hertfordshire Benevolent Society and that founded as the Benevolent Medical Society in Norwich. The latter became known as the Norfolk and Norwich Benevolent Medical Society. J.G. Crosse, an early 19th century Norwich surgeon who was actively involved with the Society, wrote in 1821 that it was the second medical benevolent society to be formed. So, the Essex and Hertfordshire Society must have been formed earlier in the same year. Its founder was R. R. Newell of Colchester, a surgeon who later practised as a physician. This indicates the medical importance of Colchester at that time and the honourable record it has in the history of British medical societies. Its separate local medical scientific society, the Colchester Medical Society (1774), remains the oldest surviving medical society in the English provinces.

Another East Anglian medical benevolent society was formed in 1787, the Suffolk Benevolent Medical Society at Stowmarket, but it was dissolved in 1847. A similar fate befell the Kent Medical Benevolent Society, which was also formed in 1787.

In the following year, 1788, the Society for Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men was formed in London to help the 'destitute widows and orphans' of doctors living in the City of London and within a seven mile radius of it. In framing its regulations its founders record having made a study of the already existing societies for Essex and Hertford-shire and for Norfolk and Norwich. In 1817 eligibility for membership was extended to the whole county of Middlesex, further extensions were later made and in 1973 eligibility was extended to any British or Irish medical graduate born in the United Kingdom or Eire to parents of British nationality.

The Society for Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men has thus become a national society after existing as a local medical benevolent society for almost two centuries. It is therefore not included in the list of contemporary local medical benevolent societies, trusts and funds listed in Appendix 4. It will be seen from this list that three other local medical benevolent societies founded early in the 19th century are still in active existence: The Surrey Benevolent Medical Society (1812), the Medical Benevolent Society established at Birmingham (1821) and the Medical Charitable Society for the West Riding of the County of York (1828), whose name remains unchanged since the local government re-organisation of 1974. Among a number of other early local medical benevolent societies that were formed but which have not survived were the Lincoln Medical Benevolent Society (1807) and the Sussex Medical Friendly Society (1857).

Thus the medical benevolent society movement began with the foundation of a number of local societies to meet local needs. Encouragement to their activities was provided by Parliament through the Friendly Society Act of 1793 and a number of revisions of the Act that followed. Thereby, in return for meeting certain requirements, such societies were given fiscal advantages that included exemption from Stamp Duty. However, with the progressive organisation of the medical profession at national level during the 19th century it was a natural consequence that medical benevolence would also be provided at this level.

3. National Organisations

The main national organisation was the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association formed at Worcester in 1832 that became in 1856 the British Medical Association (BMA). From the Association's inception its founders were concerned with the benevolent needs of its members, but an early attempt to meet this requirement by linking with the Medical Benevolent Society established at Birmingham in 1812 did not come to fruition. However, at the Association's Manchester meeting in 1836 a Benevolent Society was formed which was linked to, but separate from, its parent organisation.

Ten years later when the Association held its 14th anniversary meeting at Norwich it was reported that many claims were being made on the Benevolent Society's funds but difficulty in meeting them was being encountered as relatively few members of the Association were subscribers to it. It is also of interest that it was reported to the meeting that there was then a benevolent fund in each of the six counties, of which Norfolk was one, which then comprised the Eastern Branch of the Association.

Gradually the Association's Benevolent Society gained strength, with its title changed in 1856 to the Medical Benevolent Fund when the Association became the BMA. When the Fund separated completely from the BMA in 1870 the title was changed yet again to the British Medical Benevolent Fund. In 1913 the Fund was granted royal patronage and a final change in title was made to the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund, the style by which this active and influential organisation is still known.

While the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund grew in strength during the latter half of the 19th century, its resources at the time were still insufficient to meet the needs of the profession especially in those areas where there was no local medical benevolent society. In the correspondence columns of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) of the 1880's there appeared a number of examples of unmet medical benevolent need that led to the creation in 1884 of the Medical Sickness Annuity and Life Assurance Society. This started life as a Friendly Society and remained so until 1920 when it became a Mutual Insurance Office. Prominent in its formation and the Society's first president was Dr. Ernest Hart, Dean of St. Mary's Hospital Medical School and editor of the BMJ. For the first thirteen years of its existence the Medical Sickness Annuity and Life Assurance Society, now a Limited Company, was nurtured by the BMA with facilities provided for it at the Association's Annual General Meetings; however, it has always been an entirely independent and separate organisation.

The 19th century also saw the formation of the Royal Medical Benevolent Society of Ireland (1842), which provided for the needs of medical men and their dependents in Northern Ireland and Eire. The Royal Medical Foundation of Epsom College, though it is not a Society, was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1855. This provides scholarships for necessitous sons of doctors to Epsom College and also makes provision as its resources allow for medical practitioners and their widows in reduced financial circumstances.

In the 18th and 19th centuries a variety of societies and organisations, at first local and later national, arose to meet the benevolent needs of the medical profession. While the pioneer of the movement was the Essex and Hertfordshire Benevolent Society (1786), the Norfolk and Norwich Benevolent Medical Society soon followed it in the same year. Since the former Society was dissolved in 1951 and its funds transferred to the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund, the Norfolk and Norwich Benevolent Medical Society can justly lay claim to be the oldest existing medical benevolent society in the United Kingdom.