Medical education in Sheffield
The Medical School is the oldest provider of higher or professional education in Sheffield, dating back to 1828.
1800-1850
1811
Hall Overend, a Sheffield surgeon apothecary, begins to train medical students in Sheffield. His "school" consists of an anatomy museum and stories suggest that he encourages his students to obtain bodies for dissection from burials.
1812
Dr Arnold Knight (knighted in 1841) founds the Sheffield Medical Institution, the precursor of today’s Medical School. He made an early study of grinders’ asthma and started the Public Dispensary. The rival School of Anatomy and Medicine is run by Wilson Overend (son of Hall Overend) in Church Street, relocating to Eyre Street in 1834.
The Sheffield Medical Institution opens on Surrey Street on 2 July, containing a museum and library, a lecture room with 100 seats and a dissecting room. Its motto is the Hippocratic aphorism ‘Ars Longa Vita Brevis’ (art is long, life is short): the original stone carving of this text is now situated close to the Medical School’s entrance on Beech Hill Road.
1832
A cholera epidemic strikes Sheffield: 1,347 residents are infected, with 402 deaths. Many are buried in grounds between Park Hill and Norfolk Park, donated by the Duke of Norfolk. The Cholera Monument is still a feature of the Sheffield skyline today.
1835
The School of Anatomy and Medicine is destroyed by fire following a riot. The caretaker of the building had gone out drinking with a friend and on their return the two men proceeded to beat the caretaker’s wife. She began to scream, "Murder! Murder!" A crowd broke into the building and found skeletons and partially dissected bodies, arousing their suspicions of grave robbing.
1850-1900
1865
The Sheffield Medical Institution is renamed Sheffield Medical School. Three years later it becomes the Sheffield School of Medicine.
1866
Dr Mariano Alejo Martin de Bartolomé becomes President of the Medical School, holding the position until 1888.
1879
Firth College opens on Leopold Street, offering courses in arts and pure sciences, including biology.
1887
An outbreak of smallpox in Sheffield expands into an epidemic, infecting 6,000 people and killing 598. Wooden buildings are assembled at Lodge Moor Hospital to house patients; these "temporary" buildings are demolished in 1935.
1889
Dr Arthur Hall (knighted in 1935) is appointed a teacher at the Medical School. He went on to become Professor of Physiology, Professor of Pathology and Professor of Medicine.
1894
Dr Christopher Addison (created 1st Viscount Addison in 1945) is appointed as full-time Medical Tutor with the aim of improving clinical teaching. In 1897, he became the first Arthur Jackson Professor of Anatomy. The Addison Building on Western Bank is named in his honour.
1897
The union of the Medical School with Firth College and Sheffield Technical School (which now houses the Faculty of Engineering), resulting in University College, Sheffield.
Dr John Robertson, Sheffield’s Medical Officer of Health and University College’s Lecturer in Public Health, persuades the city to become one of the first to introduce notification of tuberculosis; this became the first compulsory scheme in Britain in 1903.
1900-1950
1903
University College buys Western House, bordered by Weston Park, which is demolished to build what is now Firth Court. The foundation stone is laid on 30 June by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Marcus Samuel. When the building is ready in 1905, the Medical Faculty is housed in the north wing, adjacent to Back Lane, where anatomy specimens could be delivered discreetly to the dissecting room.
1905
Enthusiastic support from the people of Sheffield leads to the Charter, sealed on 31 May, to create the University of Sheffield. King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visit the city on 12 July to open the Western Bank building.
On 6 June, the Medical Faculty resolves to admit female students for the first time. Lydia Henry is the first female medical graduate in 1916.
1908
The first congregation to award Sheffield degrees takes place on 2 July. The Medical School chooses red as the colour of its academic hoods.
1914
A total of 153 students from the University enlist at the beginning of the second world war. Twenty-one members of academic staff and 10 laboratory assistants join the armed forces, together with 38 honorary medical staff who went to military hospitals. Professors’ wives run the Sheffield University Hospital Supply Depot in Western Bank; a Surgical Appliance branch is formed in the Faculty of Engineering; and a female team in Chemistry supervises the production of large quantities of an anaesthetic drug, β-eucaine. Medical graduate William Barnsley Allen (MB ChB 1914) is the most decorated British medical officer of the war.
1918
The height of an influenza pandemic coincides with the end of the first world war. Over 300 Sheffielders die a week during October– November. Not only are hospitals unable to cope, but with a shortage of labour and coffins, mortuaries and undertakers are overwhelmed.
1920
The Charity or Hospital Rag starts with medical students’ enthusiastic attempts to raise money for local hospitals on Hospital Saturday. The aim of raising money for the hospitals – particularly in the struggle against tuberculosis – continues for many years as Rags become bigger and more elaborate
Dr Edward Mellanby (knighted in 1937) is appointed as the first Professor of Pharmacology. He discovered vitamin D and the role of the vitamin in preventing rickets, and was probably the first doctor to use insulin therapy in the UK.
1928
Sheffield celebrates the centenary of the Medical School.
1933
John Beresford Leathes, Professor of Physiology since 1914, retires. He conducted distinguished research in metabolic biochemistry and was appointed Honorary Physiologist at the General Infirmary and the Royal Hospital.
1935
Dr Hans Krebs (knighted in 1958) is appointed as a Lecturer in Pharmacology; he becomes a Professor of Biochemistry in 1945. He received the 1953 Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology for developing the crucial metabolic cycle which bears his name. The Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology houses the Krebs Institute and a public memorial.
1939
At the start of the second world war, medical students were allowed to finish their degrees as there was no mass conscription. However, all male students were regarded as military trainees and expected to join the Senior Training Corps. The University moved to a four-term year in 1942 to increase the production of graduates; this was applied to the Medical School in 1943.
1946
Dr Charles Stuart-Harris (knighted in 1970) is appointed Professor of Medicine – he is known as the "smiling tiger." He researches poliomyelitis and influenza viruses (the oral polio vaccine underwent its first trials at Sheffield) and established a major research and epidemiological unit to investigate respiratory illnesses: Sheffield is a ‘bronchitis black spot’ until the Clean Air Acts (first in 1956).
1948
The National Health Service (NHS) is founded. It is now the world’s largest publicly funded health service.
1950-2000
1955
Dr Robert Kilpatrick (created Baron Kilpatrick in 1996) is appointed a Lecturer in Pharmacology. He becomes a Professor of Experimental Pharmacology in 1965, of Clinical Pharmacology in 1966 and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1970-73.
1969
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Frank Holdsworth (knighted in 1968) becomes a professor. Voted the best lecturer in the Medical School for many years, he developed the first accident and orthopaedic service in Sheffield and described the Holdsworth fracture of the spine in 1963.
1972
Dr Eric Wilkes becomes the first Professor of General Practice and Community Care. He founded St Luke’s Hospice on Little Common Lane – then the first hospice outside London – in 1971.
1973
The Medical School vacates the north wing of Firth Court and moves to its new home on Beech Hill Road.
1976
The Department of Linguistics is established. It evolves into the Department of Human Communication Sciences in 1996.
1977
The first purpose-built medico-legal centre opens on Watery Lane. Alan Usher, the first Professor of Forensic Pathology and the Home Office pathologist for South Yorkshire, performs over 27,000 autopsies during his career.
1978
The Royal Hallamshire Hospital opens to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Medical School; its planning and development has taken 40 years.
1979
Graduating students acknowledge a modified Hippocratic Oath – the Sheffield Affirmation – at their degree congregation.
I will remain loyal to the high traditions and responsibilities of my profession. My patients’ health and welfare will be my paramount consideration. I will do my best for my patients at all times and refrain from any action which may be harmful. I will, in the course of my work, come into special relationships with my fellow human beings calling for great propriety and trust. I will avoid all wrong doing and anything mischievous or dishonourable. Whatsoever I see or hear during my practice that ought to be kept secret, I will not divulge.
The Sheffield Affirmation
1985
Research into cot deaths is published by John Emery, Consultant in Paediatric Pathology at the Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor, and John Knowelden, Professor of Public Health. The subsequent Back to Sleep campaign saved many babies’ lives.
1986
The first Sheffield IVF babies are born, after Professor Ian Cooke introduces a programme funded by the Birthright Trust.
1990
Dr Gordon Duff (knighted 2007) is appointed Florey Professor of Molecular Medicine. He is an international expert on the role of genetics in the inflammatory process and chronic disease risk.
1995
The School of Nursing and Midwifery joins the University.
1996
The School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) is created. It is a centre of excellence in research, teaching and consultancy across health services research, health economics and public health. The Faculty now has four Schools: Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Midwifery, and ScHARR.
2000-present
2001
SOAMS (Sheffield Outreach and Access to Medicine Scheme) aims to raise aspirations in young people whose family or personal circumstances mean that they may not necessarily have considered medicine as a career.
2002
Research into ageing at the University (including the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis) receives a prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize.
2003
The new MBChB curriculum is introduced, giving students early exposure to clinical problems and patients.
2004
The Patients as Educators programme is an essential component of the MBChB course, providing student doctors with high-quality learning encounters with volunteer patients. This generosity has been a constant feature of the people of Sheffield’s involvement with the Medical School.
The £13.6 million Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Medical Research are opened by Dr Mark Walport, Director ofthe Wellcome Trust, in November.
2008
The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health is created. It consists of the Medical School, the Schools of Clinical Dentistry, Health and Related Research, and Nursing and Midwifery, and the Department of Human Communication Sciences.
2009
The Mellanby Centre for Bone Research is opened by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Keith Burnett, and bone biology experts Professor Graham Russell and Professor Jack Martin.
2010
Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) is opened by Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prince Philip.
2011
The CR-UK/YCR Sheffield Cancer Research Centre is launched, bringing together researchers from the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Medicine, Dentistry and Health and clinicians from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. It is supported by Cancer Research UK, Yorkshire Cancer Research and the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity.
2012
The Medical School and Health Sciences Library undergo a major £5 million refurbishment to greatly enhance the learning experience for students in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health.
2023
The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health is renamed the Faculty of Health. It consists of three schools: the School of Medicine and Population Health, the School of Clinical Dentistry, and the School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery.
ScHARR is renamed the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research.