Society Robert Hampson and His Crusade

It is often overlooked how much the progress of women relied on sympathetic men, and the cause of women in pharmacy was no exception.12 The white knight in this case was Robert Hampson.13 In 1872, Hampson was elected to the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society. In the 1860s, he had been a prominent member of the rival United Chemists and Druggists Society. However, following the passage of the Pharmaceutical Act, he redirected his radicalism, especially women s rights, to the activities of the Pharmaceutical Society. He was joined in his crusade by other, equally radical, new members of the Council. 

On 2 October 1872, Hampson proposed to the Council that, since women had been permitted to take the examinations of the Society, they should have been allowed to attend lectures and use the laboratories of the Society s School of Pharmacy. It is interesting that a report of his opening remarks reflected the perceived progress of women that had occurred in the preceding decade  

In 1862 perhaps the admission of lady students to the classes and laboratory might appear a step fraught with great danger, and tending to revolution but in the present day, in remembrance of the social and educational changes that had taken place, he could not for a moment assume that the present Council, elected on a much broader basis, would endorse the decision of the predecessors, which was, in fact, most arbitrary, unjust and impolitic.14 

Hampson contended that, by the use of person in the Pharmacy Act of 1868, the framers of the Act did not exclude the possibility of women. His eloquent plea — in this instance — was successful. The Council agreed unanimously to the admission of women to classes however, as there was limited laboratory space, they were denied access to the laboratories. 

This was Hampson s sole early victory. His proposal in November of that year that Elizabeth Leech be admitted as a member was defeated.15 In December, his motion that women who took the examinations should be eligible for the Society s prizes, certificates, and fellowships was defeated by one vote.10 

---