Standing and Temporary Committee, Working Parties and Joint Meetings

Date:
1892-1996
Reference:
SA/SMO/D
Part of:
Society of Medical Officers of Health
  • Archives and manuscripts

About this work

Description

For many years the entire business of the Society had been considered by Council alone, but during 1889 two committees, Law and Parliamentary and Publication (Journal) Committees, were appointed to assist the Council. From that date, as the business of the Society and local authority public health services grew, numerous committees and working parties were appointed, on a permanent or temporary basis.

This section is divided into five sub-sections:

D.1 - Volumes mostly containing minutes of several different committees etc., which were probably appointed by Council. Only D.1/5 contains minutes of just one committee

D.2 - Minutes and papers relating to committees and working parties appointed by Council

D.3 - Minutes and papers relating to Specialist Committees of Council set up in 1974 after re-organisation of the Society and abolition of Groups

D.4 - Papers relating to sub-committees and working parties appointed by the General Purposes Committee

D.5 - Papers relating to other committees and working parties, mainly joint meetings with other organisations and some for which the appointing body (i.e. Council or the General Purposes Committee) is not clear

Each sub-section is listed in chronological order (except D.3, in which the committees cover roughly the same period; 1974-1976). The majority of items in the second, fourth and fifth sections are files which, unless otherwise stated*, were maintained by the Society Secretary. Any correspondence contained therein was that of the Secretary. This often included copies of the Chairman's correspondence.

Researchers should note that papers do not exist, or have not survived, for every Society committee. Those that are included in this section are often very incomplete, particularly after 1950, and a number of files contain mostly correspondence, reports and other related papers, rather than the official minutes. Many standing committees were only convened when occasion arose. Nevertheless, information about committees can also be found in the Council or General Purposes Committee minutes (Section B & C), attendance books (Section F), and the Society's journal Public Health (J.3). Minutes of committees, and their reports, were often published in the journal until the 1960s.

A number of files were deposited by Dr H M Cohen, who sat on numerous committees of the Society or representing the Society. See papers of School Health Services Group for biographical details (Section P.9).

Publication/Creation

1892-1996

Physical description

10 boxes

Languages

Permanent link