Mr Philip Crees, FRPharmS, of 25 Jacey Road, Birmingham B16 0LL, died on December 17, 1999, aged 89 years. He was a former area pharmaceutical officer for West Birmingham and a former council member of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists and a holder of the guild's Evans silver medal.
Philip Crees registered as a pharmaceutical chemist in 1933 and in 1935 began working for Birmingham Co-operative Chemists. He joined the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks and in 1936 was instrumental in persuading the union to form, as a special section, the Association of Pharmaceutical Employees. By the time the 1939-45 war broke out, the association had about 1,000 members, mainly in multiples. (After the war, when employment conditions improved, it faded away.)
In 1943, Mr Crees was called up for the Royal Navy and served as petty-officer and canteen manager on a frigate, HMS Thornborough. Returning to civilian life in 1946, he moved into hospital pharmacy with an appointment as senior pharmacist at Selly Oak hospital, Birmingham. In 1948, he assisted in the setting up of a regional committee of hospital pharmacists. The committee was recognised by the regional hospital board and entrusted with surveying all the pharmacy services in the region's hospitals. It later took charge of the region's drug contracting.
In 1949, he moved to Dudley Road hospital, Birmingham. He was later promoted to be district pharmaceutical officer for West Birmingham, becoming area pharmaceutical officer in the National Health Service reorganisation of 1974. His retirement in 1976 was marked by a reception and buffet organised by colleagues.
At the start of his hospital career, Mr Crees had joined both the then Guild of Public Pharmacists and the Association of Scientific Workers. He served on the guild council for two years in the early 1950s but then, dissatisfied with its inability to make much headway on the Whitley Council, he set out to persuade hospital pharmacists to join the AScW instead. In the early 1970s, the guild merged into the Association of Scientific, Technical and Management Staffs, of which the AScW had by then become part.
Mr Crees was a committee member of the Society's local branch from 1950 to 1998, serving also as vice-chairman (1965-66), chairman (1967-68) and treasurer (1970-77). He was secretary of the Society's West Midlands regional committee from 1981 to 1992 and remained on the committee until 1997. He attended the British Pharmaceutical Conference regularly for many year and was on the organising committee for the conference held in Birmingham in 1968. He represented hospital pharmacists on Birmingham local pharmaceutical committee from 1949 until it was disbanded in the 1970s.
He was awarded the guild's Evans silver medal in 1988 for an outstanding contribution to pharmacy in the public service.