Agnes Borrowman

Born near Melrose, Scotland, in 1881, Agnes Thomson Borrowman61 spent 4 years completing a pharmacy apprenticeship before joining the Edinburgh pharmacist, William Lyon, as a junior assistant. During her limited spare time, she studied for the Minor at the Edinburgh Central School of Pharmacy. She passed the examination in 1903, at the age of 21. 

For this reason, Borrowman moved south to Runcorn, Cheshire. In addition to pharmacy duties, she undertook her first research. This research — on an arsenic, iron, and quinine mixture — she presented to an Edinburgh Evening Meeting in 1904. It was while at Runcorn that she penned a spirited letter 

In 1906, she moved to Dorking to work for 3 years with J. B. Wilson, an accomplished pharmacist and a cultivator of medicinal plants. She passed the Major examination in 1909, after which she became a research assistant at the Pharmacy School with Henry Greenish, studying components of quinine. Having been recommended by Arthur Crossley,63 Borrowman subsequently left the School s laboratories and took up a better-paying appointment as Research Chemist in the London laboratory of the Rubber Growers Association of Malaya and Ceylon. 

Borrowman s research activities covered an incredible diversity of topics, as her obituarist in the Pharmaceutical Journal noted  

The obituary went on to note that she also spent four nights per week attending classes at Borough Polytechnic, Chelsea Polytechnic, and the Cass Institute. In her spare time, she read and searched specifications at the Patent Office library. 

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Many male pharmacists still refused to take on women apprentices. One of the major boosts for training women in pharmacy was a single chemist s shop Number 17, The Pavement, Clapham Common.40 The pharmacy had been opened by Henry Deane in 1837. Deane had joined the Pharmaceutical Society in 1841, being one of its earliest members, and he was President from 1853 until 1855. The pharmacy was purchased sometime between 1911 and 1914 by Buchanan as a training facility for women. She was joined in 1914 by Agnes Borrowman (see below). One of their student intake of 1915 recalled ... 

Anon. (15 December 1923). Personal items Miss Agnes Thomson Borrowman. Pharmaceutical Journal 107 625. 

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