About the Senior Fellows Club
The College’s Senior Fellows Club are a community group for retired Fellows and specialists to connect, learn and enjoy events and lunches.
The club is open to Fellows who have retired from active clinical practice or are at least 60 years of age. Retired surgeons, dental surgeons, anaesthetists, radiologists, pathologists and accident and emergency doctors - all are welcome. Members of the club are encouraged to bring spouses, partners or friends as guests to meetings and lunches.
Led by Co-Chairs Professor Charles Court-Brown and Dr Gordon Drummond, the club meets once a month from October to June, at the College’s Edinburgh campus and is made up of around 200 Members.
Meetings start at 12pm with an address given by an invited speaker. Topics range from science to theatre and local history, with time for questions at the end, followed by lunch in the College’s Ten Hill Place hotel.
There is an annual subscription fee of £20.00 and lunch fee (approx. £22.50) payable at the start of each session.
Join Senior Fellows Club
If you are interested in joining the Senior Fellows Club, please get in touch with Moira via the button below.
Contact UsCo-Chairs
Professor Charles M Court-Brown
Retired Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon
Professor Court-Brown is a retired Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon who worked in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
Dr Gordon Drummond
Retired Anaesthetist and Intensivist
Dr Gordon Drummond is a retired Anaesthetist and Intensivist, who trained in anaesthetics and physiology in Edinburgh and Montreal.
2026 Events & Programme
2026 Events Programme
The Senior Fellows Club events are held monthly from October to June in the Symposium Hall lecture theatre at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Each session begins at 12pm and varies with a different speaker and theme.
See Programme
Upcoming Events
16 April 2026: Mr Maurice McIlwrick "Secret Tunnels of Edinburgh"
25 May 2026: Joint Meeting with Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Members of the club are encouraged to bring spouses, partners and friends as guests to all meetings and lunches, except our annual joint meeting with the Senior Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians. This is because of the large numbers who usually attend joint meetings which could exceed the hotel’s capacity for lunches.
Event Suggestions
We are open to suggestions from members of the club for future topics or speakers of our events. Please submit ideas below to the co-chairs.
Suggestion FormFees
Annual fee: £20.00
Lunch fee per person: approx. £22.50
Previous Events
Themes of the Senior Fellows lectures between 2015/16 and 2025/26 can be viewed below.
Senior Fellows Club Videos
Watch videos of previous talks from our Senior Fellows Club below.
- Ms Kath Hay - "Renegade Monk and Runaway Nun!” (12 March 2026)
- Mr Ian Archibald, Burntisland Heritage Trust - "The Remarkable Mary Somerville - Queen of 19th Century Science" (15 January 2026)
- Reverend David W S Todd BEM - "History of Theatre in Edinburgh" (11 December 2025)
- Dr Fraser Hunter, National Museums Scotland - "Rebuilding Roman armour: the story of a remarkable armguard from the Scottish Borders" (6 November 2025)
- Mr Kenneth Williams -"North American Railroads" (9 October 2025)
- Dr Gavin Miller, University of Glasgow - “UFOs in Scotland: a down-to-earth history” (4 September 2025)
- Richard Murphy OBE, Richard Murphy Architects - “The creative re-use of historic buildings” (April 2025)
- Dr Helen S Williams - “Printing in Edinburgh: Books & Buildings” (March 2025)
- Beth Biller, University of Edinburgh - “From Hot Jupiters to Cold Earths: Prospects for finding habitable Exo-Earths" (February 2025)
- Nicholas Uglow, Heritage Consultant, Simpson & Brown - “Meet me at Binns’ corner: Capturing and conserving local significance” (January 2025)
- Douglas Harper - “River, Railway and Ravine” (December 2024)
- Dr Christopher Ellis, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - “Scotland’s Rainforest A Global Treasure” (November 2024)
- Chante St Clair Inglis, Director of Heritage & Estates, RCSEd - “Our Heritage: Past and Future” (October 2024)
- Linda McDonald - “The role of women in the First World War” (12 September 2024)
- Rosemary Mann, Conservationist - “Phoebe Anna Traquair and her murals in Edinburgh” (7 December 2023)
- Andrew Walls, Honorary Fellow - “The Crichton: An Admirable Story” (November 2023)
- George Lowder, Chief Executive of Transport for Edinburgh - “City Mobility 2030” (June 2023)
- Christina Sinclair, Director, Edinburgh World Heritage - “Looking back, moving forward” (April 2023)
- Professor Michael Griffin OBE, Immediate Past President RCSEd - "Chronology of the Covid-19 epidemic" (9th March 2023)
- Arran Johnston, Historian, Director, Scottish Battlefields Trust - “The Battle of Prestonpans” (9th February 2023)
- Martin Geissler, Television presenter and Journalist - "Changes to the News Industry and the Future of News" (12th January 2023)
- Dr Sarah Deters, Curator, St Cecilia’s Hall - “What the heck(elphone)? The sounds of forgotten musical instruments” (8th December 2022)
- Professor J Murray Roberts, Professor of Applied Marine Biology and Ecology, University of Edinburgh - "Cold-water Corals in a Changing Ocean (3rd November 2022)
- Alan Brown, Senior Fellow- “The Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica – the Trip of a Lifetime” and Paul Geissler, Senior Fellow “Airships and Graf von Zeppelin” (6th October 2022)
- Sir Mark Jones - The National Trust for Scotland (23rd June 2022)
- Ian Wallace - The Order of St John of Jerusalem (2nd June 2022)
- Mark Glancy - Audobon's Birds Of America (23rd May 2022)
- Jonathan Noble - In Defence of Reputation – Why have so many famous composers been defamed? (10th May 2022)
- David Balharry - Wild Places for People and Nature (14th April 2022)
- Robert Carr - Chasing the Ambulance from Jex Blake to Montgomery (17th March 2022)
- Iain Macintyre – Edinburgh surgery and the history of golf (6th December 2021)
- Dr Elizabeth Cumming – The Scottish Colourists (11th June 2019)
- Professor David Purdie - The Scottish Enlightment “Morning of the modern World” (20th May 2019)
- Craig Gordon – The Spartans Community Football Academy (12th February 2019)
- Mike Bullock – Northern Lighthouse Board “More than Lighthouses” (6th December 2018)
- Rab Bennets OBE – Bennetts Associates, Architects (12th June 2018)
- Deborah Clarke – Palace of Holyroodhouse a Royal Residence for 500 Years (13th March 2018)
- Dame Sue Black – The Role of Anatomy in the Modern Forensic World (13th February 2018)
- Ian Gardner – Rosslyn Chapel (11th January 2018)
- Steve Sturdy – The Genomic Revolution in Medicine: Cui Bono? A Historical Perspective (7th December 2017)
- Philip Long - V&A Museum of Design (15th June 2017)
- Sir Craig Reedie – Play True World Anti-Doping Agency (22nd May 2017)
- Eddie Clutton - The Use & Abuse of Neuromuscular Blocking Agents in Animals (7th March 2017)