The British institutions

This page is an institutional history of British radiology, not a history of machines. The dates of the discovery of X-rays, the invention of computed tomography and the development of magnetic resonance imaging are not published by the primary sources this publication accepts, so they do not appear here. Our sources and method rule is simple: a date is given only when an authorised source prints it, and everything else is left out rather than filled from memory. What the Royal College of Radiologists and the Society of Radiographers do publish is a rich record of how the profession organised itself, and that is the story told below.

What came first: the Roentgen Society of 1897

The Royal College of Radiologists traces its own origins to 1897 and the establishment of the Roentgen Society, which it describes as the world's first X-ray association. The College places this organisation at the heart of medical imaging from its infancy, and links it to the development of medical radiology in the early 20th century.

How the profession built its bodies

A second body arrived in 1920, when the Society of Radiographers was founded. The Society describes itself today as one of the oldest and most experienced radiography organisations in the world, as the trade union and UK professional body for the diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy workforce, and as working to shape policy and standards, pioneer new ways of working, and ensure safe and fair workplaces.

On the medical side, the decisive decade was the 1930s. According to the Royal College of Radiologists' history and heritage pages, around 100 radiologists established a new society known as the British Association of Radiologists in 1934. A year later, in 1935, the Society of Radiotherapists of Great Britain and Ireland appeared, dedicated to those specialising in the treatment of cancer with X-rays and radium. In 1939 the two organisations merged to form the Faculty of Radiologists. The Faculty was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1953, which the College describes as forming the foundation of the modern organisation, and in 1975 it was granted a Supplemental Charter and assumed its present title, the Royal College of Radiologists, describing itself as a Royal College since 1975. A further additional Supplemental Charter came in 2002.

Where the College has lived

The College's successive homes trace its growth. It began at the British Institute of Radiology at 32 Welbeck Street, then from 1944 to 1973 operated under the wing of the Royal College of Surgeons of England at Lincoln's Inn Fields. After that came Berners Street, then 38 Portland Place, and in 2013 the College moved to its current headquarters at 63 Lincoln's Inn Fields, returning to the square where it had been a guest of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 1944 to 1973. The College now describes itself as the leading professional membership body for clinical radiologists and clinical oncologists, with over 18,000 members globally across its two specialties, and it administers the FRCR examinations in radiology as well as the DDMFR examinations in dental and maxillofacial radiology.

The regulatory layer: from ICRP 103 to the 2018 switchover

Institutions of professionals were joined, much later, by institutions of law. ICRP Publication 103, published in 2007, set out the recommendations that still structure radiation protection today, updating those of 1990 while keeping the three fundamental principles. In Europe, Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom, dated 5 December 2013 and known as the Basic Safety Standards Directive, reshaped the legal framework, and the Care Quality Commission notes that the British regulations implement, in part, its provisions.

The switchover itself came on 6 February 2018, when IR(ME)R 2017 and IRR 2017 entered into force and IR(ME)R 2000 was revoked, as reported by the Care Quality Commission in a news item dated 30 January 2018 and confirmed by the texts on legislation.gov.uk. IR(ME)R 2017 carries obligations that echo the institutional history above: a regulation 17 on training with a Schedule 3 on adequate training, a regulation 7 requiring employers' clinical audit of medical radiological procedures, and a regulation 14 on expert advice, under which the medical physics expert is recognised by the Secretary of State.

What these bodies govern today

The two professional strands described in this history remain distinct in the modern workforce, and readers who want the current picture of each role can follow our page on who does what. The College speaks for doctors: clinical radiologists are specialist doctors trained to interpret images across X-ray, ultrasound, CT, MRI, PET and molecular imaging, and interventional radiologists perform image-guided procedures. The Society of Radiographers speaks for the workforce that operates the equipment, a profession regulated by the HCPC under the protected titles of Radiographer, Diagnostic radiographer and Therapeutic radiographer, according to the HCPC's professions and protected titles page updated on 12 May 2025.