Free Members' Webinar: 1926 and All That: Patients, Veterans, Psychiatrists and the Royal Charter
Thursday 21 May 2026 | 4pm - 5pm
Please contact events@rcpsych.ac.uk for your CPD certificate of attendance after watching the recording below.
Overview
A special event as part of our Royal Charter centenary commemorations.
1926 and All That: Patients, Veterans, Psychiatrists and the Royal Charter
1926 in the UK is perhaps best remembered for the General Strike and the mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie. It was also an extraordinary year for psychiatry. Celebrations around the Medico-Psychological Association’s Royal Charter were counterbalanced by the publication of the minutes and report of the Royal Commission on Lunacy and Mental Disorder. It indicated deficits in provision of psychiatric care for the general population in England and Wales, and made many suggestions for improvement. At the same time, thousands of mentally traumatised First World War veterans still required support.
A round number of years is conducive to reflecting on the past. There were many achievements in the 1920s, but some challenges recur or endure into the present, and discussion may offer insights into dealing with them.
Programme
- 4.00pm – 4.05pm: Welcome and introduction from the Chair, Dr Gordon Bates
- 4.05pm – 4.20pm: Prof John Crichton: Receiving a Royal Charter: Power, Purpose, and Professional Identity a Century Later
- 4.20pm – 4.35pm: Dr Claire Hilton: Not the Royal Charter: The other RC in psychiatry in 1926
- 4.35 – 4.50pm: Prof Edgar Jones: The shell-shocked veteran: care in the community
- 4.50pm – 5.00pm – Discussion and Q&A
- 5.00pm: Event close
Speakers
- Prof John Crichton
- Dr Claire Hilton
- Prof Edgar Jones
- Dr Gordon Bates, Chair
Slides
Professor Edgar Jones - The shell-shocked veteran: care in the community
Any slides we have permission to share from the speakers will be made available here after the webinar.