Personal recollections of Sidney Dyke in the early years of the A.C.P.

Sidney Campbell Dyke, founder of the A.C.P., celebrates his 80th birthday on 5 September 1966. We all wish him continued good health and many happy returns of the day. In the early years of the A.C.P. everyone who attended our meetings knew Dyke personally: one might almost say, intimately. But nowadays there must be many of our members who know him only by sight or by reputation. Therefore it may be of interest to recall the impression he first made on those of us who worked closely with him nearly forty years ago. I must begin by recalling that the A.C.P. was founded in 1927 but that early in 1926 Dyke, entirely on his own initiative, had sent exploratory letters to a number of pathologists, suggesting the formation of an organization for bettering the condition of pathological practice and improving the status of clinical pathologists. Following this preliminary enquiry Dyke sent a letter to the British Medical Journal and Lancet (I January 1927) announcing the intention of holding a meeting in London to consider the interests of those engaged in the practice of pathology. attended by 33 pathologists who decided then and there to form an association 'to develop the application of pathology in relation to medicine and to protect the interests of those engaged in its study and practice'. These are the bare facts. For a more detailed account I think the most easily available source is W. D. Foster's 'Short history of clinical pathology' (1961). Chapter VIII, entitled: 'Organization of clinical pathology to present day' was written by Dyke and so includes his own account of the origins of the A.C.P. S. C. Dyke was just over 40 years of age when he founded the A.C.P. He was already a familiar figure to those of us who attended meetings of the Pathological Society, which had of course, been in existence for many years. He looked then (and still looks) astonishingly like his representation on the foundation medal struck in his honour at the time of our 21st anniversary in 1948. He has always had the same eager, voluble and emphatic way of speaking at public meetings: persuasive and effective. From the earliest beginnings we always held two scientific meetings a year, one in London and one in the provinces. The meetings were both social and scientific, as Dyke has himself recorded: 'A very important part of these meetings …