From Mr H. J. Mullan, MRPharmS
SIR,-On Magna Carta Day recently, two ladies presented us with a magnificent water colour of the coat of arms of Egham which bears the legend Ut homines liberi sint. They said it was a small token of appreciation for the way we have looked after them for so many years.
That very day as I was cashing up, a gentleman tapped on the window. When I opened the door he gave me a beautifully wrapped parcel. He told me that his family was moving to Devon as he had retired. He wanted to say goodbye and to thank us for all our care. He told me that I had opened during the night to dispense an urgent prescription for his young daughter at Christmas, 1969!
When I told him that his gift was more than generous, he laughed and said that it was not really. He explained that as a shareholder he had written to protest at Boots's "Invasion of Egham" and was so incensed at the reply he received that he sold his considerable shareholding in protest. Boots shares are now less than half what they were when he sold.
He laughed uproariously when I told him that my late mother would have said that they could not have any better luck.
It is now six years since Boots opened next door to us (PJ, March 12, 1994, p344) and we continue to prosper.
H. J. Mullan
Egham, Surrey