ABSTRACT
The fiftieth Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place at Manson House on 20 June 1957. The Society had successfully ended the year (its Jubilee year) with a balance of £230. However, the highlight of the Jubilee celebrations occurred later that year with a banquet to which numerous distinguished individuals (including the Duke of Edinburgh) were invited. Preparations had begun the previous year, when the president (Gordon) referred to the matter at a Council meeting on 10 October 1956; it was decided that a dinner to which the Patron (HM the Queen) or another member of the Royal Family be invited should be held, some time in the latter half of 1957, and that a sub-committee should be appointed to organise this event. The matter was further discussed at an ad hoc Council meeting held at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on 15 November. It was reported that although HM the Queen did not attend such functions, the Duke of Edinburgh would probably be pleased to receive an invitation, assuming the date was convenient. The maximum number of attendees should be limited to 400 (in fact on the occasion there were only 231 Fellows and their guests present). The venue should (it was felt) be either the Royal College of Surgeons or the Savoy Hotel. At a meeting on 15 December Council was informed by Boyd (an Honorary Secretary) that the dinner would in fact take place at the Royal College of Surgeons in either October or November 1957.
