Dr Alexander Walk, at that time President-Elect, Librarian, Co-Editor, Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee and our representative on the General Nursing Council, was the first Officer I spoke to when I joined the staff of the RMPA in January 1960. It was typical that he should telephone to welcome the newcomer, and, as I have learned over the years, also typical that he should then have been serving the Association in so many and varied ways, and that he should now still be engaged in the service of the College. To this service he has given his skill, wisdom, generosity and wit for half a century, and last month he and the College celebrated the Jubilee of his first official appointment—as Assistant Editor of the Journal of Mental Science—in May 1928—a record never equalled by any other member.

As was explained last year, the full Minutes of Annual Meetings are not published in the Bulletin until the following year, generally in the May issue, this having been found most convenient for members who wish to raise any matters arising from these Minutes at the subsequent Meeting. This summary of the proceedings at the Business Meeting on 5 July is based on notes taken at the time. A selection of papers presented on the other days will be published in later issues of the Journal and the Bulletin.

Two documents on this subject have been submitted for publication in the Bulletin. Document 1 is a statement of the circumstances which led to the setting up of a joint Working Party to consider these special requirements, and of the policy subsequently adopted by the College. Document 2 is the report of a survey conducted on behalf of the Working Party. It was found that there was some overlap between the two documents, and for this reason and for the convenience of readers some changes have been made in the presentation of their contents; in particular, some of the introductory passages of Document 2 have been transferred to Document 1, and for some passages which occur in both documents the reader is referred to Document 2.

In 1964 a Departmental Working Party on the ‘Organisation of the Prison Medical Service’ published its report. Recommendation 5 states: ‘Psychiatrists should be appointed by the Home Secretary and Regional Hospital Boards or Boards of Governors jointly for service part-time in a prison service establishment and part-time in a psychiatric hospital or clinic outside the forensic field, and possibly also in a teaching post. Some appointments should be at Registrar and Senior Registrar level and some at Consultant level.’ As a result nine such consultant appointments were made. It appeared clear from the report of the Committee on the Mentally Abnormal Offender (Butler Committee), paragraph 20/17 that ‘difficulties had been experienced in establishing satisfactory working relationships between consultants occupying the joint appointments and their colleagues in prisons'.

Dr ‘Ben’ Monro died suddenly on 30 May, aged 68 years. He had been a Lord Chancellor's Medical Visitor since 1973. Previously his career had been in psychiatric hospitals and he became a distinguished Medical Superintendent of Long Grove Hospital, Epsom. He was early to introduce there ‘Industrial Therapy’ and elsewhere to develop a ‘Day Hospital’. Again, when the first Adolescent Unit was transferred from St. Ebba's Hospital to Long Grove he at once took an active personal part in the practice of adolescent psychiatry. His few writings reflected his earlier interest in statistical analysis.

Infanticide is a unique offence. The law decrees that the possession of a certain state of mind at the time that a recently delivered mother kills her child is sufficient to reduce her criminal responsibility for her actions. The law does not require evidence of a direct connection between the state of mind and the killing, and the consequences are not defined. She is to be dealt with as if she were guilty of the offence of manslaughter.

The Working Party was set up to consider the question posed by the DHSS as to whether there should be a ‘teaching increment’ to the consultant target, i.e. should Districts with special teaching responsibilities have more consultants than similar ‘non-teaching’ Districts?