[1][2] The British Society for the History of Medicine was founded in 1965[3] following the establishment and success of the Faculty of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London,[4] as result of the work of librarian and medical historian F. N. L. Poynter,[5] who along with Douglas Guthrie, also organised the BSHM in its early years.

[9] The first president of the BSHM was Douglas Guthrie, an Edinburgh surgeon, whose reputation as a medical historian was enhanced by the publication of his major work A History of Medicine.

[14] The BSHM Congresses have since taken place at centres throughout the UK, in the form of a two- or three-day meeting where keynote lectures are delivered and peer-reviewed papers and posters are presented.

[18] The eighth congress was held in Liverpool in 1971, under the presidency of Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, when Alfred White Franklin was the BSHM's treasurer.

[22] John Blair was a consultant surgeon from Perth Royal Infirmary, who taught at St Andrews and Dundee Universities and became a medical historian.

The International Society for the History of Medicine congress, held in Glasgow in 1994 agreed that a Trust Fund could be established in 1995.