Royal College of Surgeons of England - Hunterian Oration

Hunterian Oration

The oration was founded in 1813 by the executors of John Hunter's will, his nephew Dr Matthew Baillie and his brother-in-law Sir Everard Home, who made a gift to the College to provide an annual oration and a dinner for Members of the Court of Assistants and others. In 1853 the oration and dinner became biennial and is held on alternate years in rotation with the Bradshaw Lecture. It is delivered by a Fellow or Member of the college on Feb 14th, Hunter's birthday, "such oration to be expressive of the merits in comparative anatomy, physiology, and surgery, not only of John Hunter, but also of all persons, as should be from time to time deceased, whose labours have contributed to the improvement or extension of surgical science". The RCS Oration is not to be confused with the Hunterian Society Oration given at the Hunterian Society.

• 2011 Norman Williams
• 2009 Linda de Cossart
• 2007 Anthony Mundy
• 2005 Sir Peter Morris
• 2003 Charles S.B.Galasko, Hunter's Legacy and Surgical Training and Competence in the 21st Century
• 1999 Bill Heald
• 1997 H Brendon Devlin
• 1995 John Alexander-Williams
• 1993 Sir Miles Irving
• 1991 John Blandy
• 1989 Sir Roy Calne
• 1987 Sir Geoffrey Slaney
• 1985 Donald Campbell
• 1983 Not given due to death of speaker (Sir Alan Parks).
• 1981 Sir Reginald Sidney Murley
• 1979 George Qvist, Some controversial aspects of John Hunter's life and work.
• 1977 R H Franklin, John Hunter and his relevance in 1977
• 1975 Sir Rodney Smith, The Hunters and the Arts
• 1973 Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors, Some Pupils of John Hunter
• 1971 Sir Hedley Atkins, The Attributes of Genius from Newton to Darwin
• 1969 Leslie Norman Pyrah, John Hunter and After
• 1967 Arthur Porritt, Baron Porritt, John Hunter, Distant Echoes
• 1965 A. Dickson Wright, John Hunter's Private Practice
• 1963 Sir Stanford Cade, The Lasting Dynamism of John Hunter
• 1961 Russell Brock, Baron Brock
• 1959 Sir Reginald Watson-Jones, Surgery is Destined to the Practice of Medicine
• 1957 Ernest Finch, The influence of the Hunters on medical education
• 1956 Sir Henry Cohen, Reflections on the Hunterian Method
• 1953 Lionel E. C. Norbury, The Hunterian Era: Its Influence on the Art and Science of Surgery
• 1951 Sir Max Page, The Hunterian Heritage
• 1949 Henry S. Souttar, John Hunter the Observer
• 1945 George Grey Turner, The Hunterian Museum, yesterday and to-morrow
• 1943 William Francis Victor Bonney, The Forces behind Specialism in Surgery
• 1941 Arthur Henry Burgess, Development of Provincial Medical Education Illustrated in the Life and Work of Charles White of Manchester
• 1939 Sampson Handley, Makers of John Hunter
• 1936 Charles Herbert Fagge, John Hunter to John Hilton
• 1934 Sir Cuthbert Sidney Wallace, Medical Education, 1760-1934
• 1932 Wilfred Trotter, The Commemoration of Great Men
• 1930 Ernest W. Hey Groves, Hero Worship in Surgery
• 1929 A W Sheen, Some Aspects of the Surgery of the Spleen
• 1928 Sir Holburt Waring, The Progress of Surgery from Hunter's day to ours
• 1927 Berkeley Moynihan, Hunter’s ideals and Lister’s practice
• 1925 D'Arcy Power, John Hunter as a Man
• 1923 Sir John Bland-Sutton, John Hunter, his affairs, habits and opinions
• 1921 Sir Charters J. Symonds, On Astley Cooper and Hunterian Principles
• 1919 Sir Anthony Bowlby, British Military Surgery in the time of Hunter and in the Great War
• 1917 Sir George Henry Makins, The Influence Exerted by the Military Experience of John Hunter on himself and the Military Surgeon of Today
• 1915 Sir William Watson Cheyne, The Treatment of Wounds in War
• 1913 Sir Rickman Godlee
• 1911 Edmund Owen, John Hunter and his Museum
• 1909 Sir Henry Morris, John Hunter as a Philosopher
• 1907 Sir Henry T. Butlin, Objects of Hunter's Life and the Manner in which he Accomplished them
• 1905 Sir John Tweedy
• 1903 Sir Henry Howse
• 1901 Nuttidge Charles Macnamara, The Human Skull in Relation to Brain Growth
• 1899 Sir William MacCormac
• 1897 Christopher Heath, John Hunter Considered as a Great Surgeon
• 1895 John Whitaker Hulke. John Hunter, The Biologist
• 1893 Thomas Bryant, 100th Anniversary of John Hunter's Death
• 1891 Sir Jonathan Hutchinson
• 1889 Henry Power
• 1887 William Scovell Savory, Surgery in its Relation to Science
• 1885 John Marshall
• 1883 Thomas Spencer Wells
• 1881 Luther Holden
• 1879 Sir George Murray Humphry
• 1877 Sir James Paget, Science in Surgery
• 1875 Frederick Le Gros Clark
• 1873 Henry Hancock
• 1871 Sir William Fergusson
• 1869 Richard Quain, On some Defects in General Education
• 1867 John Hilton
• 1865 Richard Partridge
• 1863 George Gulliver
• 1861 William Coulson
• 1859 John Bishop
• 1857 Thomas Wormald
• 1855 Joseph Hodgson
• 1852 James Luke
• 1850 Frederic Carpenter Skey
• 1849 Caesar Hawkins
• 1848 Richard Dugard Grainger, The Cultivation of Organic Science
• 1847 Joseph Henry Green, Mental Dynamics, or Groundwork of a professional education
• 1846 Sir William Lawrence
• 1845 Jordan Roche Lynch
• 1844 John Flint South on the History of Medicine
• 1843 James Moncrieff Arnott
• 1842 George Gisborne Babington
• 1841 Richard Dugard Grainger
• 1840 Joseph Henry Green, Vital Dynamics
• 1839 Edward Stanley
• 1838 Benjamin Travers
• 1837 Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie
• 1833 John Howship
• 1832 Samuel Cooper
• 1831 Anthony White
• 1830 George James Guthrie
• 1829 John Painter Vincent, Observations on Some Parts of Surgical Practice
• 1828 Sir William Blizard
• 1827 Honoratus Leigh Thomas
• 1826 Sir Anthony Carlisle on Oysters
• 1825 William Norris
• 1824 Henry Cline
• 1823 Sir William Blizard
• 1822 Everard Home In Honour of Surgery
• 1821 Thomas Chevalier
• 1820 Sir Anthony Carlisle
• 1819 John Abernethy
• 1818 Sir David Dundas
• 1817 William Norris
• 1816 Henry Cline
• 1815 John Percival Pott
• 1814 Everard Home
• 1813 Sir William Blizard