on ageing (american division) became the gerontological society (of america) and in 1950, korenchevsky and cowdrey, together with professor l. brull, formed the international association of gerontology (now the international association of gerontology and geriatrics) which held its first congress in liege, belgium on 10–12 july 1950. in his report concerning the activities of the international association of gerontology given at its second congress in miami in 1952 korenchevsky wrote: "the whole organization of gerontological societies was devised and started in 1939 as an international club for research on ageing. in 1950, for several good reasons, the club was superseded by the international gerontological association.". contiguous internal minutes for the british society for research on ageing (bsra) are only currently available from june 1954 onwards. these were written at a time when the society was entering into a period of expansion but picture it (i) as active in the immediate past and (ii) active from a much earlier period (possibly pre-1939 since the society is described as "instrumental in the establishment of gerontological societies in european and american countries"). the earliest extant list of members and rules of the society available to the society today dates from 1954 based on internal document series and the number of members listed this was probably printed after october 1954 but before the close of the year (the executive committee meeting at which the new members were admitted taking place on 15 october). the combined list of members and rules of the society is listed as the 3rd edition which (assuming the annual or semi-annual printing that is normal practice for lists of society members) is consistent with a (now regrettably lost) 1st edition probably printed 1950–1952. this tallies closely with the chronology in korenchevsky's bmj article of 1952 as well as to his reference to an active executive committee for the bsra in 1950 where it was funded by lord nuffield to participate in a round-table conference with the "american delegation to the first international gerontological congress". this took place on 8 july 1950 under lord nuffield's chairmanship (preceding the iag meeting by two days). this appears to be one of the earliest extant uses of the term "british society for research on ageing" as opposed to the "british branch of the club for research on ageing" and therefore represents a watershed date. there are also references to the establishment of the society in 1947 (e.g. age and ageing (1972) 1(1):2 and korenchevsky's own correspondence to cowdry). there is also a reference to the "scottish branch of the british society for research on ageing" which korenchevsky described in 1951 as "established and organised by prof. crew in 1947 to stimulate and unite gerontologic and geriatric activities in scotland". under the circumstances, the decision was taken in 2010 by the chair of the bsra to set the official date of the 1st bsra annual general meeting (as opposed to its foundation date) as 1950 for meeting numeration purposes. this corresponds to the foundation of the iag and the ultimate cessation of the international club for research on ageing. it is also consistent with korenchevsky's statement of 1951 that the bsra "has organised its own annual conferences". thus, the 2010 annual scientific meeting of the british society for research on ageing was the 60th annual general meeting. during this period support for the society was forthcoming from the nuffield foundation (established in 1943). korenchevsky's report as secretary(1 june 1954) to the society's four-man executive committee (chaired by sir charles dodds frs) showed that the bsra had a notional 40 members paying an annual fee of 10s (equivalent to £12 in 2014) and assets of approximately £680 (equivalent to ~£15,800). by october 1954 this risen to 58, including possibly the bsra's first foreign member (professor j. musso fournier of motevideo, uruguay). a new executive was elected for 1955 which included professor peter medawar, who was to win a nobel prize shortly thereafter. the society restricted its interests to biological gerontology in contrast to both the iag and the american geological society. this was very much in accord with korenchevsky's vision of how the organisation would operate and was to have significant consequences for the future development of the organisation. the society's minutes during this period show a society dealing with the perennial problems in biological gerontology. these were (1) the limited number of scientists and clinicians interested in membership of "the only society engaged in research on basic problems of gerontology". (2) the question of whether or not to become practically involved in fundraising to conduct research into the biology of ageing. (3) how best to disseminate the scientific discoveries of members in the field of the biology of ageing and (4) how to work with societies with roughly cognate interests, either gerontological societies with broader disciplinary membership or with scientific societies (e.g. the nutrition society) whose membership worked on problems directly relevant to the biology of ageing. how the executive committee chose to address these problems may be discerned from the summary below. at this time, the bsra did not hold a single scientific meeting which ran over several days (the standard format of many scientific conferences today). instead, the preference was for short but frequent meetings held up to 4 times each year. in this respect, the society more closely resembled an organisation such as the antibody club which formed in 1960 (now part of the british society for immunology as the london immunology group, and which still organises seminars throughout the year) than many modern learned societies. the executive committee interspersed these short (in some cases only two hours) scientific meetings with co-ordinated activity with other interested organisations (e.g. with the dutch gerontological society, with the iag and with open meetings at such as the one held on "the biology of hair growth" held at the royal college of surgeons). many routine secretarial functions were handled by the institute of biology, of which the society remains a member today. by 1958, the executive committee had decided that "the time was not right to launch public campaigns for funds". however, attempts to secure sustained funding for ageing research continued throughout the society's history. the question of how best to disseminate the scientific findings of members was complicated by both the way in which the society operated and the variety of offers it received. as early as 1955, the organisation had considered sponsoring the european journal of gerontology (probably analogous to the journal of gerontology founded in 1946 shortly after the american branch of the club for ageing had become the gsa) but had decided not to do so. an invitation from fritz vezar and karger that gerontologica (now gerontology) should become the official journal of the bsra was turned down in 1959, shortly after the journal had been founded. the primary reason why neither formation of the society journal de novo or official linkage with a newly formed journal was adopted seems to have been that the bsra had formed a successful (and long lasting) linkage with the ciba foundation. in early 1952 prof re tunbridge (elected a member of the bsra executive committee in 1954) had asked the foundation if it was willing to hold a related conference on ageing close to the time of the third congress of the iag (july 1954). not only did the director of the foundation agree to this, but the trustees took the decision in early 1954 "to embark on special measures in support, internationally, of basic research relevant to the problems of ageing so that the conference already arranged became the first in what it is to be hoped will be a series of conferences on subjects in this field". the foundation launched a published series called "colloquia on ageing". the first of these (published 1955 on general aspects of ageing) was chaired by prof tunbridge and included contributions (either as speakers or discussants) from many prominent members of the bsra including medawar, comfort, olbers, and krohn. prominent international scientists with connections to the bsra and the iagb also attended (e.g. cowdry, vezar and brull)as did american researchers connected to the gsa such as nathan shock and mccay. ciba meetings had a distinct style in which "leading research workers from different countries and different disciplines are invited to attend the colloquia. the size of the group is, however, very strictly limited in order to obtain a free conversational manner of discussion". close linkage with ciba was thus a sensible decision for the executive committee because it both suited the style of meeting which the small membership of the bsra preferred and provided a route for authoritative dissemination since "the smallness of the groups means the exclusion of many workers active and interested in the subjects discussed and therefore the proceedings of these conferences are published and made available throughout the world". however, the disadvantage of this approach was that it was unsuited to the regular dissemination of peer-reviewed research that is so necessary today. although the colloquia series proper seem to have been discontinued after five years from 1955 to 1970 the executive committee of the society met at the ciba foundation (41 portland place, london). since the foundation headquarters also provided a library and guest facilities for visiting scientists this was to prove a remarkably durable and successful arrangement. 1960s and 1970s scientific meetings were regularly organised there and an annual ciba lecture on ageing delivered at various locations throughout the uk until 1970 (the last probably by leonard hayflick). the society also undertook joint meetings with other organisations which had shared goals (e.g. with the society for experimental biology in 1967) and its activities were always conducted with a view to harmonising them with the meetings of the iag (which took place in denmark, the usa, the ussr, israel and japan over this period) . the disengagement of ciba from support for ageing research in the early 1970s led to a number of distinct meeting venues being used by the executive committee (including the royal college of pathologists, st pancras hospital and the leeds general infirmary). a particularly important point during this period was age action year. this was a concerted campaign to raise awareness of both the problems faced by older people and the potential of research into the mechanisms of ageing to alleviate them. as hugh faulkner, founder of help the aged, put it in a 1976 editorial: age action year will also see the provision of a foundation for co-ordinated research into ageing itself. this opens up exciting possibilities for everyone, because if we are to make old age a time of interest and healthy activity we have to know how to make people fit into later years, how to make the best use of available resources and how to gear our living throughout our lives so that we know how to make the best of our own 'bonus years'. britain badly needs this foundation, because although we are ahead of so many countries in the field of geriatric medicine, we do lag behind in not having a foundation to co-ordinate and direct various fields of research. the research envisaged will tackle memory loss and senile dementia, which affects 27 per cent of those over 85; it will tackle incontinence, which is both distressing and humiliating; diabetes, which is the cause of many heart attacks and strokes; retirement, with its problems and opportunities, and other social matters. the foundation will mean that every one of us can look to a more hopeful future. this new foundation which has such potential will require a lot of money, and it was this which prompted sir lindsay ring (lord mayor of london till last month) to make age action year his special appeal and put into it all his energy and enthusiasm. this was infectious, and the money has been coming in: first from individuals whose contributions are still required, then from companies and trusts, and recently a significant move has come from the trade union movement. jack jones challenged members of his own union and others to donate one penny a week from their wages. people in britain have become more aware than ever before of the needs of the elderly. they have also seen that these needs can be met