Epsom College - Foundation

Foundation

The school was founded in 1853 by Dr. John Propert as The Royal Medical Benevolent College, the aims of which were to provide accommodation for pensioned medical doctors or their widows in the first instance, and to provide a "liberal education" to 100 sons of "duly qualified medical men" for £25 each year.

The establishment of the College was the culmination of a campaign begun in 1844 by the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, the forerunner of the British Medical Association. The scheme saw the medical profession was

"in regard to charitable institutions for the aged and infirm, the widow and the orphan, the worst provided of all professions and callings"

and took as its aim the alleviating of poverty and debt. Discussions were chaired by Sir John Forbes, Physician to Prince Albert and the Royal Household, and followed similar plans establishing schools for the Clergy and the Royal Navy in desiring to raise money to found "schools for the sons of medical men", providing an education which would otherwise be "beyond the means of many parents".

By 1851, the Medical Benevolent Society had limited itself to the foundation of a single Benevolent College, and met in Treasurer John Propert's house in New Cavendish Street, Marylebone. The new campaign's fund-raising activities included dinners, which were attended by numerous doctors and Members of Parliament, and concerts, for example at one such event, on 4 July 1855, composer Hector Berlioz conducted the UK premier of his symphonic suite Harold in Italy.

The foundation stone was laid on 6 July 1853, and almost two years later, on 25 June 1855, the College was formally opened by Prince Albert and his son, the future King Edward VII in front of an unexpectedly large crowd of around 6,000. In March 1855, Queen Victoria had consented to become patron, which relationship with British monarchs has continued ever since; King Edward VII after the death of his mother, King George V, King Edward VIII in 1936, King George VI from 1937, and then the current Queen until the present.

Its long-standing association with medicine was estimated in 1980 as having helped almost a third of its 10,000 alumni enter that profession.