NEWS
FROM SPORTS DAYS TO DARWIN
THIS YEAR, ONE OF SCOTLAND’S OLDEST COMPANIES CELEBRATES 200 YEARS OF PROVIDING MEDICINES, CURES AND LOTIONS FOR THE PEOPLE OF EDINBURGH AND BEYOND.
city council, and Commissioner of the Lighthouse Board.
Over the years, the company moved out of manufacturing, focusing fi rst on its wholesale business and then, during the 1960s and 70s, moved more and more into retail, buying and developing its chain of pharmacies, with the Lindsay & Gilmour pharmacy at Elm Row one of its early acquisitions. The pharmacy had been founded in 1826 by Robert Lindsay. Still trading from the same site, it is one of Scotland’s oldest trading pharmacies.
The label on one old medicine bottle shows that Charles Darwin was a customer while he was studying medicine in Edinburgh, and the shop also once held the Royal Warrant to supply medicine to King George V when he was in Edinburgh.
L
indsay & Gilmour, which now has 28 pharmacies throughout Scotland, fi rst started out life as Raimes, Clarke & Co, which was established on Edinburgh’s High Street in 1816 as a ‘commission agent’ supplying pharmacies, or ‘druggists’, as they were known then throughout Scotland and the north of England.
Raimes, Clarke & Co was originally established by the Raimes brothers - John and Richard - who originally hailed from Yorkshire, but who, seeing opportunity, came to Edinburgh as the city’s population began to boom. At Smiths Place they found a location close to the city, but also close to the Port of Leith – handy to collect
62 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST
the barks, leaves, fl owers and herbs and other materials they imported from around the world to create the ‘Galenical’ potions they created through the processes of grinding and distilling. These would be supplied to pharmacists, who would use these ingredients in making their own tinctures, lotions and medicines.
John Raimes never married, but Richard’s two sons took over the running of the business. Both men, however, were to die at a young age and so, Richard Clark, a former employee, was enticed back as a partner in 1888. Richard became prominent in public life, and became a Baillie of the
Since then the company has played a prominent role in the life of the capital, not only witnessing enormous social and business change – including two World Wars – and dispensing medicines to untold hundreds of thousands, including a young student named Charles Darwin, but has also survived two serious fi res at its warehouse.
Since 1835, when the expanding business moved to Leith for extra space and to be near the port, operations have been directed from the company’s handsome headquarters in a fi ne Georgian town house at the end of Smith’s Place off Leith Walk. The company now has 28 Lindsay & Gilmour branches throughout Scotland.
Company Chairman, Nigel Cumming, who is the third generation of his family to be involved in running the business, remains passionate
about both the company’s long history – and its exciting future.
‘Keeping the business working and growing throughout all that time has taken a lot of work, imagination and seen a lot of change,’ he told SP. ‘The business started off in manufacturing and wholesale, moved away from manufacture to focus on wholesale, and, in more recent decades, has moved from wholesale into retail through our chain of community pharmacies.
‘In all of that time, however, one constant has been that the company has been involved in the provision of medicines to the people of Scotland, and that commitment has extended to the way we have dealt with our own people too.’
Around the turn of the 19th century,
most employees stayed with the same fi rm most of their lives. The grounds of Richard Raimes’ house, which now form part of Victoria Park, were the scene of early staff sports days, with competitions such as running events, throwing a cricket ball and tug of war. Tellingly, there were no events for the ladies in those days. There was, however, a ‘married men’s race’ and a tug of war competition between the married and single men – with the espoused chaps usually coming out on top.
In honour of the sports day tradition, and to celebrate the company’s 200th
anniversary, Lindsay & Gilmour
recently held a family fun day for their 250 staff at Meadowbank Stadium. The theme for the day was a celebration of the staff sports days and picnics, which the fi rm ran in the past, and Nigel Cumming was on hand to greet everyone, wearing a Victorian suit that could have been worn by the company’s founders. •
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