RCSEd Quincentenary celebrations: 20 years on

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is one of the oldest surgical colleges in the world, with a rich history dating back to the late 1400s before its official founding in 1505. To celebrate such a long and remarkable history is no mean feat, but that was the aim for the College during its Quincentenary celebrations, which took place in 2005. 

This June marks 20 years since that unforgettable time for the College, which included visits from some very important global figures, the opening of new College venues and even a cancelled visit from the Queen. The RCSEd President at the time of the celebration, John Smith, and the then Vice President, Iain Macintyre, look back over the highlights. 

John Smith, former President 

Being College President at any time is a real privilege and involves a lot of hard work. Being in office for the three years that included the Quincentenary celebrations meant more work but even greater job satisfaction.

The organisers for the Scientific (Professor James Garden) and Social (David Tolley) Programmes and their teams were amazing, as were the entire College staff!

My personal highlights include conferring Companionship of the College on our Patron, HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, on 1 July 2005. He arrived at the podium to address the diplomats holding a John Lewis carrier bag. It contained the silver bleeding bowl given to him when he became Patron in 1954. The Prince assured the audience that despite being FRCSEd Hon, he had done no operating! It had been intended that Her Majesty the Queen would attend the events on 1 July, but that was prevented by anti-G7 demonstrations.

At the same ceremony, Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations, received an Honorary Fellowship. Before the ceremony he visited the College wearing a three-piece suit but apologised for not wearing a tie! 

There was great joy and relief at the end that so much had been celebrated and that the College had progressed so far and achieved so much in 500 years.

Iain Macintyre, former Vice President 

The Quincentenary was always going to be a particularly special occasion as very few organisations can claim to have been in continuous existence for 500 years. That memorable week in 2005 had been years in the planning and it more than fulfilled our high expectations. The event was on a massive scale, attended by Fellows and surgical leaders from all over the world. Ceremonial events were also attended by dignitaries from across Scottish society. The planning was expertly orchestrated by David Tolley.

Professor James Garden organised an academic programme over three days that included 15 surgical masterclasses, 12 symposia and 15 free paper sessions. These packed the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and attracted a faculty across all surgical specialties, the like of which had never before been seen in this country. Perhaps the high point of the week was the ceremonial re-enactment of the presentation of the Seal of Cause by the Edinburgh Town Council to the College, which had taken place exactly 500 years earlier, with President John Smith receiving the precious document. 

One event did not take place as planned. Prince Philip had kindly agreed to make the grounds of Holyrood Palace available for a garden party – a rare, if not unique, privilege. Planning was well advanced  when it was announced, as John mentions, that the G7 world leaders would be meeting in Gleneagles and a large demonstration was being planned in Edinburgh. The demonstrators had chosen 2 July, the day of the garden party! As the number of demonstrators was estimated to be 100,000, I had to chair an emergency meeting with representatives of the Palace, police and the transport company to decide whether we should go ahead. The Palace official and the assistant chief constable were both confident the event could proceed but the bus company representative disagreed. We took the difficult decision to cancel. In the event, the demonstration was one of the largest ever seen in Scotland with an estimated 200,000 people involved, at one stage forming a human chain that cut off the centre of Edinburgh, including the Palace, so the garden party would have been impossible.