The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7269 p477
4 October 2003

Society summary

Arenson On 14 February, Oswald Arenson, MRPharmS, of 5/685 Old South Head Road, Vaucluse, Sydney, New South Wales 2030, Australia. Mr Arenson registered in 1985.

Durning On 21 May, Francis Durning, of 86 Rydal Avenue, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3RY. Mr Durning registered in 1957 and retired from the register in 1997.

Moir On 13 May, Anna George Moir, MRPharmS, of 75 Learmouth Court, Edinburgh EH4 1PD. Miss Moir registered in 1949.

Noble On 8 September, Patricia Elizabeth Noble, née Locke, FRPharmS, of Flat 2, The Grange, 10 Beech Grove, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG2 0ET. Mrs Noble registered in 1949.

Ogden On 14 July, John Bradley Ogden, of 21 Torentum Court, Lawsons Road, Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire FY5 4BE. Mr Ogden registered in 1946 and retired from the register in 2001.

Tribute

Button In a tribute to the late Evelyn Plummer Button (PJ, 20 September, p389), BILL BROOKES writes:

Evelyn Button’s death a few months before her 95th birthday severs yet another longstanding link with the then Guild of Public Pharmacists and hospital pharmacy. At five foot and a bit — and it was a bit — Evelyn was a doughty fighter for her profession and it was no surprise to those of her generation when she became the first woman president of the guild in 1956. It was never my privilege to serve with her on the guild council although I knew of her work. Others will, I hope, tell of all she did for hospital pharmacy while on the council. But it was a pleasure to become more closely acquainted with her when I was asked by the guild and Evans Medical to write a history of the Evans Medal in 1994.

Evelyn was guild president when in 1956 C. W. Robinson, a director of Evans Medical Supplies Ltd, obtained the approval of his board to institute an annual award for hospital pharmacists as a recognition of merit. She piloted the proposal through the guild council and presided at the first award ceremony in 1958 at the hall of the Society of Apothecaries, London.

In 1995 Evelyn, together with Charles Robinson, was invited to a reunion of Evans medallists at the guild’s national conference at Gatwick when the ‘History of the Evans Medal’ was launched. It was an inspiration to spend a weekend in the company of this spritely 85-year-old woman and enjoy the pleasure she was experiencing meeting old friends and colleagues of her guild days. We corresponded regularly from that time and I deeply regretted that increasing frailty prevented her from attending the guild’s national conference in Manchester in 2002, when Helen Remington [now Helen Howe] was the second woman to be made guild president.

Although never a medallist herself, Evelyn was a great ambassador for her profession, and hospital pharmacy owes much to early pioneers such as she. I shall miss her letters and telephone calls and will always regret not making more of an effort to visit her in these last years.

Dearden In a tribute to the late Edith Margaret Dearden (PJ, 20 September, p389), Dr ROY W. DAISLEY writes:

One of the first people I met on arriving at the department of pharmacy of the then Brighton College of Technology in the late 1960s was Margaret, who at that time, was a fairly new, energetic research student in pharmaceutics looking at aspects of emulsion technology. Since that first meeting our families have remained in close friendship, with many newsy letters and latterly e-mails crossing the oceans.

Margaret obtained both her external BPharm and PhD degrees at Brighton and in 1969 married Tony, who had been studying for a degree in chemistry on the floor below.

After completing her thesis she undertook a preregistration year at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and a year later moved to South Africa, where she took up the post of lecturer at the Witwatersrand Technikon for two years until the birth of her first child.
In the following years she mostly did locums until her children were older and then worked part time in community pharmacy for many years — in fact, working mainly for one of her ex-students.

During this time she was also involved in the registration of veterinary pharmaceuticals and six years ago started a complementary health practice with her sister, a general practitioner, which was built into a successful practice as more and more people looked for alternative forms of treatment.

Margaret had a real talent for making friends and for making people feel at ease which she used to great effect both when working as a community pharmacist and as a complementary health practitioner. She was one of the many pharmacists who practise by example and in doing so move the profession to higher standards of patient care.

I will miss her letters at Christmas and along with all her friends in the UK offer sympathy and condolences to her husband Tony and their two boys Timothy and Nicholas at this sad time.

Stanford In a tribute to the late John Bevan Stanford (PJ, 13 September, p351), Dr J. K. SUGDEN writes:

I first met John Bevan Stanford in August 1965 when we were both newly appointed lecturers at the Leicester School of Pharmacy (now part of De Montfort University). After a few minutes’ conversation we discovered that we had a common interest in rugby football, and a friendship developed. Over the next 32 years we had a mutual interest in the light stability of drugs which led to the supervision of several project and research students and the publishing of many papers.

John’s self taught mastery of the French language brought him a great deal of pleasure and many valuable contacts with European pharmacists. However, John was not only an able scientist, he devoted much of his spare time to charitable work as an active member of Rotary. Although he did not suffer fools and rogues gladly he was always ready to help those in trouble. He had a remarkable gift for being able to find the right person to deal with any situation. There are many in our neighbourhood who have cause to be grateful for his help. John was, in my view, a truly practical Christian.

Pharmacy education and our local community are much the poorer for his passing. I would like to express my sincere condolences to his wife Anne, daughter Alison and son Jonathan