Records of the External Affairs Committee

Correspondence and papers of the External Affairs Committee of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, covering a wide variety of issues relating to obstetrics and gynaecology and reflecting the Committee's broad terms of reference, including maternity hospitals, midwifery, female circumcision, maternal mortality, the 1936 Midwives Act, training in obstetrics, population control, and the establishment of the National Health Service and a National Maternity Service Scheme, together with papers reflecting the College's role during the Second World War in the evacuation of pregnant women, nutrition and clothes for pregnant women during wartime, and war service and demobilisation for consultants and women.

The External Affairs Committee was set up in April 1933 to deal with external matters not specifically the concern of any one College Committee, such as matters of public and national health, and with public enquiries. It was also known as the External Relations Committee. Its activities were gradually taken over by Finance and Executive Committee during the Second World War, and it is last mentioned as a functioning committee in Council and Finance and Executive Committee minutes in 1943. The last minutes surviving in the minute book at reference RCOG/T4 date from 16 June 1939.

Unrestricted

Copyright is held by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

There is no documentation as to when or by whom these records were transferred to the College Archives. Previous cataloguing notes comment that much of the material included in the sub-fonds appears to have been placed here as relating to the general external affairs of the College.

Minutes of the External Affairs Committee and its sub-committees may be found at Reference RCOG/T4, T6 and T8.