Birmingham Medical Institute

The Birmingham Medical Institute was founded in 1875, on the initiative of the internationally renowned surgeon, Mr Sampson Gamgee. Its first home was in Queen’s College, the forerunner of what is today the University of Birmingham Medical School, but in 1880 moved to its own premises in Edmund Street in the City Centre.

As a medical charity, a status it still maintains, it was the first medical library in the West Midlands, based on an original benefaction of the General Hospital physician, Dr Fabian Evans. The Institute soon developed into the region’s major centre for postgraduate medical education, with meetings covering the spectrum of medical specialisms.

For many years the Institute also supported the scientific and medical activities of the Birmingham Clinico-Pathological Society and the Midland Medical Society. A further move to Great Charles Street in 1924 was followed by the transfer to 36 Harborne Road in 1957.

Some of the major figures of the history of medicine in Birmingham have been President of the Institute, including Mr Sampson Gamgee, Mr Lawson Tait, Dr Robert Saundby, Professor Sir Gilbert Barling Bt CB CBE, Professor Sir Thomas Chavasse, Dr Henry Featherstone OBE TD and Professor Peter Gilroy Bevan CBE.