The clinic was established in 1949. In the lean post-war years our schools and associations were slowly recovering from the stasis of war-time with but few students and no clinics outside the metropolis. Lacking premises and money the beginning was inauspicious and it was not until 1953 that the clinic was finally housed at No. 30 Tonbridge Road. During those four years much spade-work had been accomplished; a management committee had been formed, a student sponsored for training at the British School of Osteopathy, an almoner engaged and the charity formally registered.
With the qualification and emergence of our first student/graduate and the new premises prepared, the superintendent and almoner were installed, supported by an X-ray machine and a supply of patients. At this stage in our development the Constitution and Rules were prepared and published. These made provision for the treatment of those in need of osteopathy and to further the education and training of students and graduates in osteopathy. The main objective, however, was the foundation of a hospital to be called the Littlejohn Memorial Hospital, in honour of the Founder and Dean of the British School of Osteopathy. Lastly, the clinic may generally do "All other acts as may be lawfully done by a body established for purposes recognised by the law as charitable."
In 1954 the late T. Edward Hall expressed his approval of all this new clinical activity and suggested that postgraduate lectures should be made part of our teaching programme which led to the formation of the Osteopathic Institute of Applied Technique based on the American organisation entitled the Academy of Applied Osteopathy. Institute and Academy were both dedicated to the preservation of osteopathic technique and practice, each publishing a Year Book and giving every encouragement to the profession, especially the younger practitioner to give their post-graduate attention to the great principles of osteopathy as laid down by Still and Littlejohn.
Over the succeeding five years the dual operation covering the theory and practice of osteopathic medicine continued without a break and without incident. In those days student grants were unknown and it was our policy then, as it is now, to assist in the training of students. During the 1950ís all our students graduated from the British School of Osteopathy but with the opening of the next decade it was decided to open the Institute membership to other graduates from other disciplines.
Unfortunately, this democratic procedure contravened the politics of the day, closed the Institute and markedly reduced the public service formerly given by the clinic.
In the meantime there was mounting pressure and counter-pressure in the mainstream of osteopathy which reached a climax and resulted in the emigration of a group of students and forming the nucleus of a new school in Maidstone avowedly dedicated to the teaching of Littlejohn and to the "true identity of osteopathy". In the event the academics were destroyed under the iron heel of political expediency and the experiment from the point of view of what has become known as ëclassical osteopathyí had failed.
It was this chain of events that led to the birth of the Maidstone College of Osteopathy. Why a new college? Eclecticism is from the Greek and means the selection of opinions from different systems; borrowing - the opposite of exclusive. This has been our undoing. Following hard on the heels of the sturdy pioneers of osteopathic thought and practice we find a number of teachers, writers and practitioners, each with an interpretation of Stillís great discovery that leaves much that is unsaid, and undone, and accepts nothing of Littlejohnís teaching in physiology and osteopathic practice.
The modern student is confronted by a doctrinal medley that results in a severe curtailment in clinical standards and thus reduces ëliving osteopathyí to the lower status of physical manipulation. In his inaugural address the chairman of the Institute made the following points: "It is always necessary to preserve what many of us feel to be genuine osteopathy there is always an outside pressure on osteopathy which, if we react to it rightly, is perhaps a good thing. But there is also an original osteopathic idea which is different from the medical idea, and different specifically from the orthopaedic idea." Members are elected to meet for research and discussion with a view to preserving the original concept of osteopathy, particularly as it was taught by Dr. J. M. Littlejohn.
So, we have a mandate, a trust that is placed before us and of which the College is the representative. The clinic has provided a public service in the county for more than fifty years that is based entirely, and exclusively, upon the teaching of the old protagonists of osteopathic practice, a system, and method of manipulative medicine that is without equal.
The John Wernham College of Classical Osteopathy
JWCCO Registered Charity No. 1061244
Principal: John Wernham, DO, FCO, FICO
30 Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, Kent MEL6 8RT
Telephone: +44(0) 1622 752375
Fax: +44(0) 1622 765055
E-Mail: info@jwcco.org.uk