Professional institutions played an important role in the life of Birmingham surgeon James FF West and his colleagues. West held office in the Birmingham Medical Institute, the Midland Medical Society, the Birmingham Medical Benevolent Society and the local branch of the British Medical Association. He was an energetic and active participant who helped promote the principles and maintain the usefulness of the societies with which he was involved. Societies came into existence mostly thanks to the generosity and endeavours of those they served, and exclusivity was both jealously guarded and challenged. Spreading expertise through debate and fostering social intercourse was the raison d’être of most of Birmingham's societies but, when less fortunate colleagues needed support, the Birmingham Medical Benevolent Society was not the only society to provide it.
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Joseph Sampson Gamgee was West's rival in the election contest and was favoured by Birt Davies and William Sands Cox (1802–75) and their supporters in the election contest for the post of surgeon to Queen's Hospital in 1857. For more details, see GM Goodman, ‘Let right be done’. Unprofessional conduct, reputations and injustices, and their effect on the life of the surgeon, James Fitzjames Fraser West (1833–1883). Journal of Medical Biography2003;11:190–8
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