A short history of the Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Diseases on its 75th birthday. The Ninth Harrison Lecture.

Introduction As we celebrate our 75th birthday the eponymous title of the lecture series reminds us of the lifetime dedication given to our specialty by Col L W Harrison, DSO. He was the son of a Lancashire general practitioner and qualified in medicine in Glasgow in 1897. Two years later he joined the Army Medical Corps and served in the South African war and in the first world war. He tells us that his peacetime training was in bacteriology. His first contact with venereal diseases was in 1909 when he was posted to the Military Hospital at Rochester Row in London. The staV there concerned itself not only with clinical care of VD patients but with research and instruction of all grades of personnel. Harrison’s contribution at this time was to establish standards in diagnosis. In 1915, Harrison was called upon to run a 250 bedded special unit in a military hospital at Le Havre. Soon the unit had grown to 3000 beds. In 1919, with his administrative and organisational skills recognised, he was invited to establish a VD clinic at St Thomas’s Hospital, London and to be adviser to the Ministry of Health. The Ministry was then more than two thirds of the way through establishing the nationwide network of clinics as recommended by the Royal Commission in 1916.