Gary Mendham writes:
The evolution of the Bristol Dental Alumni Association into the form you see today has seen my involvement over a period of some 35 years and the facts are rather hazy. In the early days there were four people principally involved, Paul Baines, Phil Key, Alun Jones and myself. Meetings were arranged on rather a haphazard basis and the “Dental Alumni” as it was known, operated completely outside of the Dental School. Alun was our treasurer whilst we other three organised Dental Balls and other social events on a fairly “ad hoc” basis. Around 1986, Reg Andlaw was invited to attend a few of our meetings and it was suggested that the Association would be better served being run from within the Dental School. This gave us access to secretarial and computer facilities which enabled things to become much more organised. So, in late 1989 the move was established, with Reg becoming Chairman and the whole thing being run on a much more professional basis resulting in the posting of the Annual Newsletters and the helping with the co-ordination of the many reunions which were springing up. With the hospital involvement, Phil and I dropped out fairly quickly whilst Paul stayed on for a while until he finally left too. Now, things have come full circle and I have now become involved once more, this time as Honorary Secretary and one of my main tasks has been to supervise the formation of our new website.
Please explore the website and feel free to use the contact forms to offer any useful suggestions or improvements.
Chris Stephens has an enormous amount of material for those interested in the history of Dentistry in Bristol. Enjoy following the links below…
A Brief History of Dental Education in Bristol
The Bristol Dental School Site