The Liberal government in 1911 was determined to improve the health care of the poor and working class in Britain. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George, introduced a National Insurance Bill before Parliament without consulting the medical profession. The doctors were furious but Horsley, a progressive liberal, was firmly in favour of a national health service and vociferously supported the bill. This led to a series of acrimonious meetings that did not enhance the reputation of the profession and alienated Horsley from his colleagues.
GilbertBB. The evolution of national insurance in Great Britain, London: Michael Joseph, 1966, pp. 59–59.
2.
Quoted by Paul Vaughan in Doctor’s Commons: a Short History of the British medical Association. London: Heinemann, 1959, p. 194.
3.
HencockEP. British social reform and German precedents, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987, pp. 23–23.
4.
Supplement to the British Medical Journal 4 March 1911.
5.
Leading Article. British Medical Journal 1911;i:1134–1136.
6.
Memorandum on the Bill by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. British Medical Journal 1911;i:1119-1129.
7.
British Medical Journal 1911;i:1202.
8.
LyonsJ. Citizen Surgeon. London: Peter Dawney Ltd,. 203: see also Paget S. Sir Victor Horsley, London: Constable & Co Ltd, 1919, pp. 224–229.
9.
British Medical Journal 1911;ii:129.
10.
British Medical Journal 1911;ii:138.
11.
The Times, 6 December 1911.
12.
The Times, 7 December 1911.
13.
The Times, 9 December 1911.
14.
The Times, 11 December 1911. EW Goodall, Victor Horsley, AJ Price-Oxley and Lauriston E Shaw signed this letter.
15.
Letter dated 21 December 1911 in the special collection at University College, London (UCL) archives.
16.
One of the best reports of the meeting is in The Manchester Guardian, 20 December 1911. Watson Cheyne (1852–1932) and John Tweedy (1849–1924) were both to become Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons. Alfred Pierce Gould (1852–1923) was Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital and at one time Vice-Chancellor of the University of London. Wiliam Osler (1849–1919) was Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford.
17.
The Times, 20 December 1911.
18.
Letter dated 29 December 1911 in UCL archives.
19.
Correspondence held in UCL archives.
20.
British Medical Journal 1911;ii:1713-1715.
21.
The Memoirs of William J Braithwaite 1911–1912. Edited by Sir Henry Bunbury. London: Methuen and Co Ltd, 1951. p. 167 et seq.
