The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7201 p823
8 June 2002

Tribute

Bannister In a tribute to the late Ronald Bannister (PJ, 11 May, p669), RONALD KAYE writes:

I am truly sorry to have lost my very old friend, Ronnie Bannister. We first met in 1935 as students in what was then Bradford Technical College. I was just starting the second year of the course for the final London external BPharm degree and Ronnie was beginning the London intermediate course.

Although we never met during our studies he made a point of seeking me out to ask about the difficulties that lay ahead. He was a serious and determined student who liked to know just what he was in for. We often met for a chat and I came to know him well.

When I graduated I was invited to join the teaching staff and Ronnie became one of my students. His qualities soon became clear; meticulousness, conscientiousness, attention to detail, and the need to prepare everything well in advance.

When he graduated he, too, was invited to join the teaching staff and so we became colleagues and worked together for many years. He quickly became a key member of the department. We had to rely on medically qualified members of the Bradford Department of Health as external teachers for the physiology course. Ronnie assisted in this teaching. More and more frequently the external teacher was unable to attend and Ronnie found himself shouldering the burden.

He also provided the many frogs needed for teaching the subject by getting up early in the morning and catching them himself. Students were always squeamish about pithing frogs so Ronnie obligingly did it for them.

It is worth recording, too, that somehow during his early years as a teacher he managed to get an external degree in Chemistry from London University, enhancing still further his status in the department.

Ronnie later took on the teaching of forensic pharmacy which suited him well. He loved amassing detail. Many will remember his pocket book in which he carefully recorded any item or scrap of information that might be useful in the future. If a remark made in the course of general conversation caught his imagination, out would come the book and a scrap of paper, a note quickly made and popped into the book. Over the years this book got fatter and fatter and had to be held together by rubber bands. We never knew how he managed to get it back into his pocket, but if you wanted to know anything about past departmental matters, who had said what and when, Ronnie could always tell you. Out would come the book and the required bit of paper quickly located.

I left Bradford in 1961, but my wife and I remained close friends with Ronnie and Janet over the years. To Janet and her family I offer my sincere condolences.

There will be several thousands of past students who remember Ronnie Bannister with gratitude.