| Activity | Known as the ‘Grand Old Man of Boots’, Edwin Scholey Waring was born in Havercroft, Felkirk, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire on 7th May 1858. He made his first venture into the field of pharmacy when he served his apprenticeship with a chemist in West Vale, Yorkshire. He qualified in April 1880.
After occupying one or two posts as a Qualified Assistant, Waring left his post with Mr Pearson in Nottingham and took the momentous step of joining Boots as the company's first pharmacist on 10th March 1884, aged just 26. His character and example paved the way for other young pharmacists to join the growing company and for more qualified chemists to be employed as managers in store. He would become instrumental in improving the relationship between the Pharmaceutical Society and Boots.
In 1891 he joined the manufacture and development of the packed goods department and later became the Superintendent of Pharmacy, in charge of the Pharmaceutical side of the business. He was responsible for the organization of an annual competitive examination in botany, chemistry, Materia medica, pharmacy and practical pharmacy, he helped to select the best apprentices for scholarship. He was appointed as Director of the Eastern Company of Boots Cash Chemists on the 30th November 1899.
During the early 1900's, he toured the pharmacies, laying down exacting standards for his chemists and apprentices and had a placard bearing the words ‘accuracy in dispensing depends on the undivided attention of the dispenser’ hung in every dispensary.
During WWI he was posted as a Sergeant of the Citizen Army and on returning was given Directorship of the Northern, Western, Southern and Lancashire Companies of Boots Cash Chemists in 1920. He was also awarded with a seat on the Executive Committee.
In connection with Pharmacy, he had a wide experience in the administration of the Pharmacy Acts as well as all other laws relating to Poisons and Dispensing. He was a member of the Central National Health Insurance Committee of the Retail Pharmacists Union and was elected as a member of the Pharmaceutical Distribution Committee, which was set up by the Ministry of Health and was a member of the following committees in association with National Health: Nottinghamshire Insurance Committee, Medical Benefit subcommittee, Finance and General Purposes committee, Pharmaceutical service sub-committee, Joint services subcommittee, Nottingham Pharmaceutical committee, Nottingham (City) Pharmaceutical committee, Nottingham (City) Pharmaceutical Services subcommittee and Nottingham (City) Joint services subcommittee.
Waring married twice: first to Martha Anne Griffin, on 24 February 1890 at the Parish Church in Sneinton, Nottingham. Follwing her death c1901, he married Annie Elizabeth Alliss in 1903. She died in 1932.
Waring retired from the Company in 1932 after 48 years of service. He died on the 6 Oct 1937. The funeral took place on 8th October at St Giles Church, West Bridgford. |