Surgeons under stress: what pastoral care should the college provide?

From 15-18 September 1999, the Travelling Surgical Society celebrated its 75th anniversary with a meeting in London for 37 member surgeons, culminating in a dinner at The Royal College of Surgeons of England attended by 140 people. During the dinner, RCS President, Mr Barry Jackson, spoke on behalf of the guests, commenting on the many activities of the TSS, including nine visits to Paris which appeared to lack any social relaxation until he came across a reference from an account in 1938: 'on this occasion we did not attend the Moulin Rouge'. Mr Jackson concluded his speech by presenting the TSS with a copy of a book he had received from the estate of the late Mr R W (Bob) Nevin, one-time Dean of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and a former President of the TSS, who had signed the fly-leaf. Entitled Truants--The Story of Some who Deserted Medicine Yet Triumphed, the book was written by Lord Moynihan based on the Linacre lecture he delivered in Cambridge in 1936, the year of his death. The President of the TSS expressed warm thanks, emphasized friendship and education as being essential ingredients of travelling societies and sent greetings to the College on its forthcoming bicentenary.