JEFFCOATE, Sir Thomas Norman Arthur (1907-1992): autobiography

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1538 S40
Held at	: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/library-services/archives-and-heritage/archives/ ›
Full title	: JEFFCOATE, Sir Thomas Norman Arthur (1907-1992): autobiography
Date(s)	: c1985-1993
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 box
Name of creator(s)	: Jeffcoate | Sir | Thomas Norman Arthur | 1907-1992 | Knight | gynaecologist and President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Thomas Norman Arthur Jeffcoate (1907-1992) specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology after qualifying with First Class Honours from Liverpool University in 1929. From 1930 until his retirement in 1972 he served on the teaching staff of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Liverpool. By 1933 he had been appointed Honorary Consultant at the Women's Hospital, Liverpool Maternity Hospital and the David Lewis Northern Hospital. In 1945 he became the University's first full-time Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He was President of the RCOG from 1969-1972 and was knighted in 1970.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Autobiography of Sir Norman Jeffcoate, c1985-1993, with loan copies and floppy disc from which the autobiography was prepared.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: Professor Stephen Jeffcoate.

Finding aids:

A general index to the files listed in the catalogue of the Archives of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is maintained in the College Archives; refer to the College Archivist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

after Jeffcoate's retirement he composed an autobiography. It was not intended for publication, but he presented a version of the text to Professor B M Hibbard to be typed, and in due course placed in the College's Archives, so that it could be made available to Fellows and Members and serious researchers. Jeffcoate died before the preparation of the typescript had been completed. Another copy of the autobiography is in the possession of Jeffcoate's son, Professor Stephen Jeffcoate, and it is possible that there are some textual variants between the two copies. These variants can in part be attributed to failures in the electronic storage and transmission of the text. However in a letter of October 1991 (reference: S28/5) Jeffcoate writes of having passed his 'autobiography, or parts of it' to Professor Hibbard. It is therefore possible that other parts, and perhaps, a copy of those parts passed to Hibbard, were retained by Jeffcoate, and inherited by Stephen Jeffcoate in 1993. In a letter to the College Archivist dated 12 August 1991 Jeffcoate wrote that the autobiography was written 'a few years ago'.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

The RCOG Archives holds Sir Norman Jeffcoate's papers as President of the College (Ref: A4/14); memorabilia presented to the College by him in 1991 (Ref: S28); photographs of Jeffcoate (Refs: PH1P/14/1, PH3/20/29-35, PH7/9-10, PH7/18/11-13, PH8/2b and PH20).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Sources: Biographical details of the individuals who have presented material to the College and/or comprise the subject of the records, have been compiled using information in administrative files and, where relevant, consulting Sir John Peel's book The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1969, Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1975. Compiled by Clare Cowling, Archivist, RCOG.

Rules or conventions:
National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997; ISAD(G), Second Edition, 2000.

Date(s) of descriptions:
September 2000