Boost for historic Polish links

A scholarship has been launched to mark the 70th anniversary of the Polish School of Medicine.

It will support a PhD student to research the history of the school which was established at the university in 1941 to allow Polish medical students to continue their studies during the War.

Recording of history

Part of the new research project will include the cataloguing and recording of the Polish School of Medicine Historical Collection.

The work of the school has produced an extensive archive of documents and photographs that is housed in the Edinburgh University Centre for Research Collections and is largely un-catalogued.

The Collection was established in 1986, on the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Polish School, by the late Dr Wiktor Tomaszewski, who had been a senior member of staff at the Polish School and a popular Edinburgh GP.

Vast collection

The Collection contains many medals of medical interest, sculptures, paintings, photographs and books about the School, as well as other artefacts.

Many of the items were gifted by Polish medical universities, former students, staff and graduates of the Polish School and by Dr Tomaszewski himself.

The 70th anniversary project, starting in September 2011, will be based in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology it will be funded by the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and the Polish School of Medicine Historical Collection Fund.

The work of the Polish School of Medicine at the University is one of the most evocative partnerships in Scottish medical history. This project will go a long way to examine and record its impact on the field of medicine and wider society.

The Polish School of Medicine stopped teaching in 1949. In 1986, a Polish School of Medicine Memorial Fund was established to provide scholarships for doctors and medical scientists to study or undertake research in Edinburgh.