The Prout Club

The collection chiefly comprises material on the annual dinners of the Club: menus, correspondence, order of business, invitation circular, annual toast to Prout, list of attendees, etc. Some files contain annual balance, and later files contain CVs of new members and honorary guests. In addition there is some committee correspondence and a history of the Club.

1975-1996

2 boxes

Section A (the largest) relates to Annual Dinners, section B contains correspondence and section C is to do with the history of the Club.

These papers were given to the library at Wellcome Collection by Dr Hugh Baron in July 1996. They formed part of a larger group of papers which has been divided into four separate collections: GC/199 (Dr J.H. Baron), GC/241 (Balsalazide), SA/PRO (The Prout Club) and SA/BHC (British Health Care Arts Centre).

The Prout Club was started by Hugh Baron and Michael Hobsley in March 1972 as a dining club for people interested in secretions of the stomach. The inaugural meeting was held in Aviemore, Scotland, where the autumn meeting of the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) was being held. Baron was the Secretary and Hobsley was the Treasurer. The annual dinners were held on an evening during the Annual Meeting of the BSG. Membership was limited to 50. When members moved out of the field, they either resigned themselves or were asked to resign to make way for a new member. An amendment was made to the rules in 1976 to allow Corresponding Members (i.e. members who had moved abroad, but still remained in the field). Foreign guests at the dinners were invited to become Honorary Members. The dinner was presided over by a different person every year, and there was always a guest of honour.

The committee did not actually ever meet, but conducted its business by correspondence.

In 1994 Hobsley retired as Treasurer and was succeeded by David Ralphs, and in 1996 Baron retired as Secretary, succeeded by Roy Pounder.

For a full history of the Prout Club see SA/PRO/C.2.