The British Homeopathic Association

The British Homeopathic Association has been founded twice, once in 1847 to spearhead the foundation of the London Homeopathic Hospital, and again in 1902 when the British Homeopathic Association was reborn.

In both incarnations, the British Homeopathic Association’s role was to combine the medical and lay homeopathic organisations within homeopathy into one body for the promotion, study and propagation of homeopathy,

1847 - the British Homeopathic Association was founded in 1847 with 410 members, as a result of a split in the ranks of homeopathic practitioners occasioned by the English Homeopathic Association.

Richard Walter Heurtley and Marmaduke Blake Sampson became uncomfortable within the English Homeopathic Association (due to the conduct of two existing members) and so they proposed to form instead the British Homeopathic Association which would co-operate with the British Homeopathic Society with the sole aim of founding a homeopathic hospital in London.

The merger of the British Homeopathic Association with the British Homeopathic Society would combine the medical and lay homeopathic organisations within homeopathy into one body, and ensure that professional medical roles came under the auspices of British Homeopathic Society, whilst allowing elective powers for lay members to remain involved in the appointment of homeopathic staff.

It was also agreed that the British Homeopathic Association would have no connection whatsoever with the homeopathic hospital in Hanover Square run by Paul Francois Curie and William Laidler Leaf, and that all members of the British Homeopathic Society should become honorary members of the British Homeopathic Association.

The majority of the members of the English Homeopathic Association henceforth transferred their membership to the British Homeopathic Association.

The membership of the British Homeopathic Association at its inception was:

President: Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort,

Vice President: Henry William Paget Marquess of Anglesey,

Chair: Marmaduke Blake Sampson,

Treasurer: Matthew Marshall,

Honorary Secretary: Richard Walter Heurtley,

Management Committee: Lord Aylmer, John Gray 15th Lord Gray, Joseph Barton, Captain Bransford, Richard Beamish, Adolphe Boursot, John Broadhurst, Edward Cromwell Disbrowe, J R Elsey, Charles Hamilton, Richard Walter Heurtley, Thomas Hahnemann Hayle, John Peake Knight, CDL Lowder, Charles Hills MacKintosh, Geoffrey Nightingale, James Simpson, Culling Charles Smith, Thomas Uwins, Thomas Vincent, William Watkins,

and the members of the British Homeopathic Society.

1849 - on 22.8. 1849, the General Report of the British Homeopathic Association was published in The Concluding Task of the Disciples of Homeopathy, an address by Marmaduke Blake Sampson, reporting an increase to 1270 members, and the annual accounts of the Association,

President: Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort,

Vice President: Henry William Paget 1st Marquess of Anglesey,

Patrons: Augusta Duchess of Cambridge,

Chairman: Marmaduke Blake Sampson,

Honorary Secretary: Richard Walter Heurtley,

During 1849, the British Homeopathic Association had championed the cause of James Dore Blake, and published The Truths and their Reception, reproducing an essay by Samuel Hahnemann of the same name, providing the statistics for the homeopathic treatment of cholera to date, and giving details about the mission to homeopathic mission to Ireland to relieve the potato famine.

_The Truths and their Reception_ sold 1000 copies during the year, 3000 copies of a 16 page pamphlet on homeopathy had been distributed, and 3500 circulars outlining the objects of the British Homeopathic Association had also been circulated. The British Homeopathic Association also produced a pamphlet on the homeopathic treatment of cholera, and 8000 copies of this had already been distributed.

The British Homeopathic Association reported that its members have already begun to practice homeopathy in India and New Zealand, and the Pacific Island of Labuan.

The British Homeopathic Association extended grateful thanks to Frederick Hervey Foster Quin and the British Homeopathic Society, who have worked so hard during 1849 to publicise the cause of homeopathy.

Frederick Hervey Foster Quin was the founder of the British Homeopathic Society and an honorary member of the British Homeopathic Association, and the two organisations had become linked together in 1847 to act in concert to promote homeopathy, and also at this time, the members of the British Homeopathic Society should also become honorary members of the British Homeopathic Association.

Frederick Hervey Foster Quin used the meeting to announce his call for the foundation of a homeopathic hospital in London (this was to become the London Homeopathic Hospital), and Frederick Hervey Foster Quin announced that the British Homeopathic Society would donate £100 now and £50 a year thereafter to achieve this aim, on the condition that a room and a library be set aside in the new hospital for meetings for the British Homeopathic Society.

Frederick Hervey Foster Quin then announced a personal donation of 100 guineas for the hospital and 10 guineas each year therafter, and the following promised to give 5 guineas each towards the new hospital: Hugh Cameron, John Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Edward Hamilton, George Calvert Holland, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Victor Massol, Jas Bell Metcalfe, Samuel Thomas Partridge, Henry Reynolds, David Wilson, Stephen Yeldham,

Edward Charles Warde closed the General Report with a testimonial in favour of homeopathy. Frederick Sandoz, an auditor of the British Homeopathic Association, gave official sanction to the report, and Augustus Henry Moreton gave official sanction to the call for a homeopathic hospital for London, R T Reep seconded this resolution, Thomas Uwins officially thanked the British Homeopathic Society, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin returned the thanks of the British Homeopathic Society, and mentioned Samuel Brooking who had planted the seeds of homeopathy in India, and Charles W Luther who had introduced homeopathy into Ireland,

Later in 1849, a Second General Meeting of the British Homeopathic Association was called specifically to discuss the establishment of a homeopathic hospital for London, and to report another 70 members had joined the British Homeopathic Association (now 1340 members), and Richard Walter Heurtley announced that a Management Committee for the new hospital was being formed, a suitable property is being sought, and the articles for the new hospital were being drawn up, and a list of donations for the new hospital was presented to the meeting.

Frederick Hervey Foster Quin introduced Mathias Roth to the meeting to talk about the homeopathic hospitals in Hungary, and the meeting concluded with the decision to devote the entire energies of the British Homeopathic Association to the foundation of a homeopathic hospital for London, and the entire committee of the British Homeopathic Association will henceforth become the Management Committee of the proposed homeopathic hospital for London.

Therefore, the British Homeopathic Association would be dissolved, and metamorphose into the Management Committee for the new homeopathic hospital for London.

MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH HOMEOPATHIC ASSOCIATION (over both incarnations):

President: The Duke of Beaufort, George Wyatt Truscott,

Vice President: The Marquis of Anglesea,

Treasurers: Matthew Marshall, John Dean Paul, John Yate Lee,

Honorary Secretary: George Henry Burford, Richard Walter Heurtley, Robert Neilson (Local Liverpool Honorary Secretary),

Auditors: Frederick Sandoz,

Chairmen: Hugh Frederick Vaughan Campbell 4th Earl Cawdor, Archibald George Mervyn Madge, Marmaduke Blake Sampson,

Fellows: John Rutherford Russell,

Committee: Lord Aylmer, Edward Cromwell Disbrowe, Arthur Algernon Capell 6th Earl of Essex, Francis Gordon, Lord Grey, Robert Grosvenor, Richard Walter Heurtley, A H Kindermann, Thomas Morecroft, Augustus Henry Moreton, John Ozanne, Alfred Paget, Culling Charles Smith, Thomas Uwins, Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort and many more.

Members: Guiseppe Belluomini, Francis Black, Christopher Osmond Bodman, Francis Henry Bodman, John Hervey Bodman, Percy Capper, Edward Charles Chepmell, Giles Forward Goldsbrough, Eugene Croucher, H A Clifton Harris, Thomas Engall, John Epps, James Goodshaw, Sydney Hanson, Thomas Hahnemann Hayle, C T Knox Shaw, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Charles Hills MacKintosh, James Loftus Marsden, James Beaumont Neilson (Local Liverpool Branch), George Newman, Thomas Dickinson Nicholson, John Ozanne, Henry Reynolds, Donald Scott, James Searson, James Spiers, Charles Wenicke, Roger Waterhouse, Phillip Mann Wilmot, Harold Fergie Woods, Stephen Yeldham,

1902 - the second British Homeopathic Association was founded on 25.4.1902, with the express aim of spreading homeopathy to the general public, originally called the British Homeopathy Association, it published a journal called the British Homeopathy Association,

President: George Wyatt Truscott,

Members: David Dyce Brown, Madden, John Moorhead Byres Moir, James Speirs, and many others,

The British Homeopathic Associationembraced both professional and lay elements  for the furtherance of the interests of homeopathy in the broader sense,

1905 - John Henry Clarke heavily criticised the medical homeopaths for the lack of adequate training in homeopathy and he began to train lay practitioners, and to raise funds for a Professorship in Homeopathic Therapeutics in memory of James Compton Burnett.

The British Homeopathic Association set out to meet the challenge of John Henry Clarke’s critisicms. John Henry Clarke dedicated his book Homeopathy Explained to the British Homeopathic Association, and Eugene Beauharnais Nash was invited over from America to deliver a series of lectures to promote homeopathy,

1906 - Christopher Osmond Bodman was appointed the travelling scholar of the British Homeopathic Association,

1907 - due to a call to arms by George Henry Burford, the British Homeopathic Association drew up a plan of propaganda to co-ordinate all the homeopathic bodies in Britain and to create a ‘machinery of education’,

1908 - Charles Edwin Wheeler was one of many homeopaths who gave talks at the behest of the British Homeopathic Association to boost the public profile of homeopathy,

1909 - Mr. Collings was a laboratory assistant at  the British Homeopathic Association,

1909 - the British Homeopathic Association established a National Homeopathic Fund to promote homeopathy,

1913 - the British Homeopathic Association (Incorporated) published details of its General Fund,

1914 - The British Homeopathic Associationreceived a gift of £5000 from Otto John Beit,

1916 - S Judd Lewis was a member of the Research Committee of the British Homeopathic Association,

1919 - the Beit Research Fund Committee trustees are to administer a fund which has been placed at the disposal of the British Homeopathic Association by Otto John Beit for purposes of scientific research,

1920 - the Beit Research Fund Committee of the British Homeopathic Association responded to a suggestion that an investigation of the ultra violet absorption spectra of Blood Serum (might prove useful),

1921 _- _Harold Fergie Woods was appointed the delegate of the British Homeopathic Association to attend the International Homeopathic Conference in Chicago,

1922 - the British Homeopathic Association published James Compton Burnett’s Fifty reasons for Being a Homeopath,

1923 - the Beit Research Fund of the British Homeopathic Association funded more research by William Ernest Boyd,

1936 - the Beit Research Fund of the British Homeopathic Association funded more research by William Ernest Boyd and the publication of William Ernest Boyd’s paper Research on the Low Potencies of Homeopathy, (NB: The Beit Fund no longer operates email from Robert Mathie 15.4.13)

1955 - John Bertram Leslie Ainsworth supported the work of the British Homeopathic Association enthusiastically throughout his professional life, joining its council in 1955 and serving as Treasurer for many years, before being elected Life President in 1992. John Bertram Leslie Ainsworth was also a Council Member of the Homeopathic Trust.

1990 - The British Homeopathic Association ran seminars, training sessions and road shows throughout Britain, and keeps an impressive stock of books, Journals and self help pamphlets in its shop in Devonshire Street. For many years, the British Homeopathic Association published a journal Homeopathy, and over the years has published many books on homeopathy,

1999 - the British Homeopathic Association moved from 27a Devonshire Street, London W1N 1RJ, to 15 Clerkenwell Close,

2000 - the British Homeopathic Association journal was renamed Health and Homeopathy after the merger of the British Homeopathic Association with The Homeopathic Society and The Homeopathic Trust.

2000 - the British Homeopathic Association is an active  British medical research charity dedicated to homeopathy,

2000 - the British Homeopathic Association is active and publishing an electronic resource to provide information about homeopathy, a directory of qualified practitioners, information about education and training in homeopathy, details of research in homeopathy, and contact details.

2002 - Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was the Patron of the British Homeopathic Association until her death in 2002.

2003 - the British Homeopathic Association moved to Hahnemann House, 29 Park Street West, Luton LU1 3BE,

2003 - Archibald George Mervyn Madge,  a previous Chairman of the British Homeopathic Association died, and he left a Fund for the naming of a Section of the British Homeopathic Association Library, or for an article on homeopathic pharmacy, which still operates today (in honour of Christine Brenda Madge),

2008 - Enid Segall,  former Secretary General of the British Homeopathic Association became the President of the European Federation of Homeopathic Patients’ Associations,

2010 - the British Homeopathic Association web site is here,

2010 - Robert Mathie is the current Research Development Adviser at the British Homeopathic Association - Robert Mathie explains:

‘The BHA has been active in research since its merger with the Homeopathic Trust. In 2001, it discontinued the direct grant-funding arrangements of the former Homeopathic Trust, in favour of working to develop a research ‘culture’ in the Faculty of Homeopathy and in homeopathy more generally. The post of Research Development Adviser was created at that time. I have filled this post since its inception’.

Of interest:

The English Homeopathic Association founded in 1845 with 500 members, proposed to include lay members as a direct appeal to members of the public, and to support the Homeopathic Hospital set up in Hanover Square by Paul Francois Curie and William Laidler Leaf.

The Homeopathic Society was founded in 1958 by Alva Benjamin (as The Hahnemann Society) with the help of influential laymen and physicians to counter the overuse of modern drugs, The Hahnemann Society merged with The Homeopathic Trust in 1990 to become The Homeopathic Society, and it published Homeopathy Today, and included veterinary homeopathy and promoted homeopathy via films, lectures and self care seminars. The Homeopathic Society merged with The British Homeopathic Association in 1999.

The Homeopathic Trust was a Charity to promote homeopathic Education and to fund research. Under its Patron Prince Richard Duke of Gloucester, The Homeopathic Trust worked to advance homeopathy and to financially support the Faculty of Homeopathy,