University of Birmingham Medical School

The University of Birmingham Medical School is one of Britain's largest and oldest medical schools with over 400 medical, 70 pharmacy, 90 biomedical science and 100 nursing students graduating each year. It is based at the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. Since 2008, and following a departmental restructure, the school became an entity within The College of Medical and Dental Sciences.HistoryThe roots of the Birmingham Medical School were in the medical education seminars of Mr. John Tomlinson, first surgeon to the Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary and later to the General Hospital. These classes were the first held in the winter of 1767 - 68. The first clinical teaching was undertaken by medical and surgical apprentices at the General Hospital, opened in 1779. Birmingham Medical School was founded in 1825 by William Sands Cox, who began by teaching medical students in his father's house in Birmingham. A new building was used from 1829 (on the site of what is now Snow Hill Station). Students at this time took the licentiate/membership examinations of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.In 1836, Earl Howe and a number of prominent local men submitted a memorandum to King William IV and on June 22, a reply communicated His Majesty’s acquiescence to become a Patron of the School to be styled the Royal School of Medicine and Surgery in Birmingham. There was serious need for a new teaching hospital and in 1839 Sands Cox launched an appeal. Sufficient money was raised within a year and the hospital built in 1840 - 41 was opened in 1841 by Sands Cox.