Thursday the 5th of February, 2026 dawned dark and rainy as members of the Lindsay Society for the History of Dentistry and other interested parties gathered at Cutlers’ Hall in London for the annual Memorial Lecture. An event to brighten any day.
The College of General Dentistry had generously offered the Society a room for the event which was being held during their own study day.
Lindsay Society President, Peter Dyer opened proceedings by mentioning that Cutler’s Hall had been built in the mid-nineteenth century on the site of what had been the Royal College of Physicians and as we sat in a wonderful oak panelled room we soaked up the atmosphere of days gone by. He introduced the speaker, Dr Margaret Wilson, a recent recipient of the Lindsay Society’s Memorial Medal, past editor of the Dental Historian and current Honorary Curator of the British Dental Association Museum. Now retired she was at one time a consultant in restorative dentistry and clinical head of division at Central Manchester University Hospital NHS Trust.
The theme of her talk was Movers and Shakers Remembered and Forgotten. Over the course of an hour we were treated to an informative and engaging lecture covering Lilian Lindsay, John Smith and Bowman MacLeod of Edinburgh, John Hunter, Sidney Wormald, Matthew Cryer, Michael Buonocore and Kate Latarche.
John Smith was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Dental Dispensary that later became the dental school – a pioneer for dental education. We learnt that William Bowman MacLeod had five daughters and maybe this was why he was open-minded enough to allow Lilian Lindsay to sign on to the dental course at the University of Edinburgh. We discovered that Sidney Wormald of Manchester helped to break the monopoly of the London-based Royal College of Surgeons of England by fighting to gain recognition for the LDS exam organised by the RCS Ireland. Before that time any dentist outside of London was disadvantaged by having to travel to the capital to sit the exam – not that that bothered the London-based dentists! Kate Latarche was the first female dentist to qualify with both a BDS and an LDS from the University of Manchester. Despite having every opportunity to minister to the wounded of the First World War at home she decided to go out to the field of battle to serve as a dentist – and was the only woman from the UK to do so. Matthew Cryer of the Cryer elevator was instrumental in encouraging Harold Chapman to go over to study dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania which ultimately resulted in him becoming one of the great early UK orthodontists. Michael Buonocore, a pioneer of dental adhesion with his “sleeper” article published in 1955. A seminal paper that was mostly overlooked until the 1970s. John Hunter is nowadays perceived as being a slightly murky figure due to his links with the resurrectionists – changes in his reputation over time possibly being reflected in his statue at the RSM being moved next to a staircase out of the way! In summing up this eclectic but important group of dentists plus the surgeon, Hunter, Dr Wilson reflected on the fact that when looking back at the “movers and shakers” we need to take them as a whole – a mixture of the good and the bad.
At the end of what had been an engaging talk Margaret was presented with a bottle of champagne and a bouquet of flowers.
Before we all dispersed there was time to socialise and lively conversations between friends and new acquaintances were sparked off by the lecture. Despite the weather outside a very pleasant and enlightening morning had been spent by all.
If you enjoyed this why not take part in our next event in March, the second meeting of the Dental History Discussion Group.