The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) is the professional body responsible for the specialty of anaesthesia throughout the United Kingdom.

[citation needed] The College's activities are varied, but include the setting of standards of clinical care, establishing the standards for the training of anaesthetists and those practising critical care and acute and chronic pain management, setting and running examinations, and the continued medical education of all practising anaesthetists.

The roots of the college can be traced back to the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI), which was set up in 1932 by Henry Featherstone and others, and continues today.

The AAGBI derived from the Section of Anaesthetics of the Royal Society of Medicine because that was not allowed to engage in 'political' or 'trade union' activities nor as an examining body.

The figures on either side of the shield (known as "supporters") are two pioneers of anaesthesia, John Snow and Joseph Thomas Clover.