[2] The founding group included James Hobson Aveling,[3] Robert Barnes,[4] Graily Hewitt,[5] Henry Oldham,[6] Edward Rigby, William Tyler Smith, Thomas Hawkes Tanner,[7] John Edward Tilt,[8] Sir Charles Locock and Sir George Duncan Gibb.
The Act's proposals included regulation of medical practitioners, taken at the time to include midwifery; and the Society turned in time to certifying midwives.
[2] The diploma introduced in 1872 recognised the role of the midwife, in supervising "normal labour".
[9] A dispute over ovariotomy, which other members opposed, led Barnes to leave and found the British Gynaecological Society in 1884.
[4] In the election for the presidency at the end of that year, matters came to a head when Alfred Meadows, supported by Aveling and Barnes, failed to be chosen by the Council.