On 19 June, 1987 the North-East Division of the College combined with the Newcastle University Department of Psychiatry to pay a conference tribute to Professor Sir Martin Roth as he approaches his 70th birthday. The Teaching Centre of the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle was an appropriate setting for such an event for Sir Martin spent 21 years as Professor of Psychiatry in Newcastle and the large attendance indicated the affection he still evokes there 10 years after his departure to Cambridge. Several generations of former colleagues spanning the past 30 years were present and the eminent positions they had reached in psychiatry, both at home and overseas, demonstrated what an intellectual power-house this small provincial department became under Sir Martin's direction.