The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7500 p550
3 May 2008

Society summary

DEATHS

TRIBUTES

Andrew On 18 April, Michael Gordon Andrew, MRPharmS, aged 64, of 13 Howard Drive, Tarleton, Preston, Lancashire PR4 6DA.

Mr Andrew registered in 1967.


Fox On 17 January, Brian Frederick Fox, MRPharmS, aged 77, of Twynham Lodge, Brimpton Common, Reading, Berkshire RG7 1QL.

Mr Fox registered in 1954.


Kanji On 4 January, Afshin Nizarali Fazal Bachoo Kanji, MRPharmS, aged 37, of 589 Pinner Road, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 5RT.

Miss Kanji registered in 1994.


Leigh On 27 February, Geoffrey Leigh, aged 82, of 14 Gresley Court, Hawkshead Road, Little Heath, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 1LF.

Mr Leigh registered in 1947 and retired from the Register in 1972. (See tribute)


Scarborough On 22 April, Patricia Olive Scarborough, MRPharmS, aged 69, of 20 City Heights, Telegraph Lane East, Norwich NR1 4BD.

Mrs Scarborough registered in 1959.


Siller On 10 April, Aldyth Elizabeth Siller, MRPharmS, aged 92, of Flat 6, Rosewood Court, Park Avenue, Roundhay, Leeds LS8 2BL.

Mrs Siller registered in 1938.

Tributes

Grainger In a tribute to the late Herbert Searle Grainger (PJ, 15 March 2008, p321), SUSAN L. RYDER (née Grainger), MRPharmS, writes:

Tributes have been made earlier to my father’s professional career (PJ, 22 March, p348, and 29 March 2008, p381), but no one else can write about an education in the profession that started in childhood. My father was not only the practical pharmacist, boss, negotiator and diplomat, he was also a natural teacher. It started in infancy when he would show me wild flowers and explain that some were used to make medicines.

I remember Saturday mornings spent at the Westminster Hospital washing bottles or watching the dispensing. There was a leech jar on the window sill of his office, containing live leeches, and a small copper still. I still remember the smell of the place — a mixture of iodoform, coal tar and soft soap. More smells from the ointments and creams that hung in buckets from a fixture in the dispensary now mean named products that I have made, many by hand.

Between the dispensary and the basement was a dumb-waiter with hailing tube. Eventually I was to discover what went on down there and had my first taste of manufacturing — orange squash from barrels of fresh oranges, tablets on a single punch machine followed by sugar-coating and, from a respectful and respectable distance, intravenous fluids, injections and eye-drops.

I was never allowed anywhere near the steriliser or autoclaves, although their purpose was explained. So this was all familiar and in no way intimidating when years later I followed HSG to Bradford and later Leeds General Infirmary.

I was present at discussions round the table about all manner of Pharmaceutical Society matters, great and small. Names of luminaries in the profession became familiar and I remember the excitement and trepidation when my father was elected President of the Society.

I was proud of him then and still am. I did not want to follow in his footsteps. Perhaps I wanted to be independent of the name of a past president, but now I think I have to acknowledge that I must have been born to be a pharmacist.

Leigh In a tribute to the late Geoffrey Leigh, JAMES MAXEY, MRPharmS, writes:

It is with great sadness that I report to you the death on February 27 this year of Geoffrey Leigh (or, until 1952, Leib).

Born in Manchester in 1925, Geoffrey qualified as a pharmacist during the 1939–45 war, serving as a pharmacist in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Later, he worked as a community pharmacist in the Manchester area, owning a business in Rochdale Road, Harper Hay.

In the 1950s, he turned to optics, practising as an optician for some time before turning to law. After being called to the bar, he worked as a company secretary, while continuing to write a fortnightly column in The Optician until as late as 2004.

After his retirement, he continued to work from home for the Lord Chancellor’s Office, preparing précis versions of court transactions. Indeed, he was working on a case only the week before he died. He was politically active and was mayor of Enfield from 1981–82.

A mild-mannered, unassuming man, Geoffrey was an intellectual colossus, truly a polymath. He combined a massive breadth of knowledge with the skills of a raconteur. To be in his company was always amusing and edifying.

I feel really privileged to have known Geoffrey, and miss him dreadfully. He is survived by Clare, his wife of 57 and a half years, daughter Diane, son Maurice and five grandchildren.