The journey from Gerontologia Clinica to Age and Ageing

In the 1940s, British pioneering geriatricians, wishing to contribute articles about modern management of older people, had to convince sceptical editors of general periodicals such as the British Medical Journal or Lancet of the value of their work at a time when geriatric medicine was not recognised as valid specialty.  Thus the advertisement for the appointment of the first ever consultant geriatrician in Cornwall in 1947 was delayed by the BMJ because the word ‘geriatrician’ was new to them.