1941 and again for some sessions after the war. In 1938 Dr Wilfred Bion, who had been working as a psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, asked Rickman to be his training psychoanalyst. This was brought to a premature end by the onset of the second world war. Second World War At the beginning of 1940 Rickman was sent to Wharncliffe Hospital near Sheffield, where his work attracted considerable interest and admiration from army psychologists and psychiatrists, including Wilfred Bion, who visited him there. As a result of this reunion Bion drafted what came to be known as the Wharncliffe Memorandum, of which no copy has survived. It contained some of the first ideas on what was to become after the war the therapeutic community movement. Rickman joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and with the rank of major was posted to Northfield Military Hospital near Birmingham in July 1942. Most of the patients there were soldiers who could not manage army life. Rickman's approach was thoughtful, practical and hopeful, not typical of army psychiatrists of the day. Wilfred Bion asked to be transferred to Northfield and arrived in September of the same year. Here he initiated what has since been seen as a revolutionary experiment with groups which, though it lasted only six weeks, led to developments in the understanding and management of groups, not only in mental health but in public services and organisations. After the Second World War Over three decades Rickman played an important part in the foundation and development of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and later, behind the scenes, in building a bridge between it and the Tavistock Clinic. He was the editor of the British Journal of Medical Psychology from 1935 to 1949 and published a great deal (Rickman 1957). Most of his writing after the First World War was infused with psychoanalysis, but his experiences in Russia and Cambridge, and his Quaker commitment to social justice, sexual equality and non-violence, put him ahead of his time. At the end of the war Rickman renewed his involvement in the British Psychoanalytical Society and was elected president from 1947 to 1950. He died on 1 July 1951, aged only 60. Edited excerpts from Kraemer, S (2011) 'The dangers of this atmosphere': a Quaker connection in the Tavistock Clinic's development. History of the Human Sciences 24: 82-102 References King, P., ed. (2003) No Ordinary Psychoanalyst: The