A Respectable Occupation: - University of Hertfordshire Research ...

dispensing for the insured without direct supervision.‖ 215 The enquiry, as
an independent body, was quite clear that the assistant‘s examination was
not the equivalent of the ‗minor‘ examination. It was not at a level which
would permit an assistant to keep an open shop for the dispensing of
medicines and the sale of poisons. Furthermore, it was not even of a
standard that would qualify them to dispense at all, unless directly
supervised by a chemist and druggist.
George Wills, who later founded the Westminster College of
Chemistry and Pharmacy, was apprenticed to a chemist and druggist in
Stony Stratford in 1866 and passed the ‗minor‘ examination in about 1870.
He later applied for the post of dispenser to C.F. DuPasquier, who was
Apothecary to the Queen‘s Household. On finding that his application could
not succeed because he did hold an Apothecaries‘ Assistant‘s Certificate, he
sat the examination within three days and passed. 216 Although this is only
one example, it suggests that those who had passed the ‗minor‘ examination
found no difficulty with that of the assistants.
The Examination Committee of the Society of Apothecaries was
aware that its assistant‘s examination was inadequate, when compared with
the ‗minor‘ examination. In March 1919, it recommended to the Court of
Assistants that they should hold further examinations after an extended
training period to award a higher or honours grade. 217 In October 1919, a
215 Society of Apothecaries Archive, Box 10, E/4/4/2/3, ‘Report of the 1913 Departmental Committee
appointed to consider the Conditions Imposed by Section 15 (5) (iii) of the National Insurance Act, 1911
on the Supply of Medicines to Insured Persons, vol. 1, pp. 15-16‟.
216 Kurzer, „George S.V. Wills and the Westminster College of Chemistry and Pharmacy‟, 484.
217 Society of Apothecaries Archive, Court Minute Book 1913-1926, p. 280, Court of Assistants Minutes,
25 Mar. 1919.
147