Magnificent day + yet not oppressively hot. Still very hoarse + my deafness increased by the post nasal catarrh. Took the 8.24 to Portsmouth. As usual had a 1st compartment all to myself. The session did not begin till 10.15 as there had been the opening of the Exhibition. There was an interruption when the new President Mr Childe1 was introduced + installed by [text deleted] McEwen. The President Elect Hall of Bradford2 was also introduced. Several overseas representatives spoke. Several notifications were discussed. The Scottish report [was] received.3 Stevens4 + I lunched at the Corner House. I got tickets for the Royal Yacht5 tomorrow. Lyndon6 got 2 yesterday for the Dock Yard + gave them to someone whom he mistook for me! Stevens kindly undertook to get tickets for the theatre. We finished all the business before 3 + I got away by the 3.5. Rob. Wallace7 took H.8 + A.9 in his car to Winchester. The Murray Scotts10 + Miss Stark11 called in the evening. Beautiful clear night with moon.
1 The 91st A.G.M. of the British Medical Association was held on 24 July 1923 at which outgoing President Sir William McEwen (1848-1924), Scottish surgeon and pioneer in brain surgery, inducted new President Charles Plumley Childe (1858-1926), M.R.C.S., F.R.C.S., B.A., L.R.C.P., M.R.C.P. [“Ninety-First Annual Meeting Of The British Medical Association. Portsmouth, 1923. Annual Representative Meeting.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 3265, 1923, pp. 33–73. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20424184. Accessed 23 July 2023].
2 It was also announced that the President Elect was Mr John Basil Hall (1866-1926), M.A., M.Chir.Cantab., F.R.C.S.Eng. and Edin., Consulting Surgeon, Bradford Royal Infirmary [sources include W. N. W. W. “John Basil Hall, M.A., M.Chir.Cantab., F.R.C.S.Eng. And Edin., President Of The British Medical Association, 1924-25; Consulting Surgeon, Bradford Royal Infirmary.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 3395, 1926, pp. 169–70. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25447523. Accessed 23 July 2023].
3 It is not clear if this is the report reproduced in the same British Medical Journal as the conference reports, see “Scotland.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 3265, 1923, pp. 159–159. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20424168. Accessed 24 July 2023.
4 John Stevens (1859-1930), M.A., M.D., F.J.C.P. Ed., medical practitioner, former Physician to the Edinburgh Western Dispensary and “indefatigable worker in the British Medical Association” [for further detail see 17 July 1923 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir].
5 The British Medical Association annual conference offered tours and visits to a wide range of sights and institutions.
6 Arnold Lyndon (1861-1946), O.B.E., M.D., M.B., M.R.C.S., medical practitioner, of Grayshott, Hindhead, Surrey and sometime medical consultant at the Haslemere & District Hospital.
7 The implication that Wallace is a medic (Dr Muir’s diary entry for 25 July 1923) points to his being Robert William Lessel (or Leslie) Wallace (1881-1930), M.C., M.B., Ch.B., M.D., medical practitioner, born Turriff, Aberdeenshire, studied George Watson’s College and Edinburgh University, in medical practice at Woking, Surrey in 1923 [sources include: UK Medical Register, 1923].
8 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and housekeeper.
9 Amy Kathleen Waldie (1889-1960), James Wallace’s niece who lived at Scotstoun, Haslemere, Surrey [see for example the 1911 England Census for Scotstoun].
10 Dr Muir had met William Murray Scott, sugar refiner, and his wife Helen Gertrude Ramsay (about 1875-1963) formerly of Bowland House, Stow, at their garden party at Wakemills, Haslemere, see Dr Muir’s diary entry for 18 July 1923.
11 Miss Stark is so far unidentified.
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/26, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1923]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 