International Council for Standardization in Haematology - the first 40 years.

This brief history of the origin and development of ICSH must, inevitably, be selective as it has been extracted from the many pages of the records of the meetings of the ICSH board and its secretariat, the annual assembly and the reports of the various expert panels and working groups. It is hoped that it will give a picture of the way in which ICSH functioned and the many experts around the world who have contributed to its activities - but with an apology and appreciation, to other colleagues who have not been named in this annotation, but who made significant contributions to the activities that are described.