Agnes Borrowman

Agnes Borrowman (7 October 1881 – 20 August 1955) was a Scottish pharmaceutical chemist. In 1924 she became the first woman to serve on the Pharmaceutical Society's Board of Examiners.

Early life and education Agnes Thomson Borrowman was born on 7 October 1881, at Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland to Margaret Davidson Borrowman and Peter Borrowman, a farm bailiff.

Her father secured her a four-year apprenticeship with pharmacist Mr D.F. Johnstone in Melrose, but as a woman she had to stay out of sight of customers "lest the prestige of the business should suffer." She found it hard to get a position after completing her apprenticeship, but found her first job with William Lyon at 7 Crichton Place, Leith Walk, Edinburgh, later claiming that the thorough training in practical pharmacy that she received made this the most formative year in her career. She was still not permitted to be seen at the front counter, but concentrated on compounding medicines, in a shop were no proprietaries were stocked. She used her half day holiday each week to study, attending the Edinburgh Central School of Pharmacy, Clyde Street, run by Mr W.B.Cowie. She also wrote to the Pharmaceutical Journal on 30 July 1904 noting gender differences in pay. Whilst at Runcorn, she contributed to the practice exercises for the PSGB Major exam published in the Pharmaceutical Journal, and also had a piece published on 'Cinchonidine and Cinchonine in a Sample of Quinine.'

During World War Two, she carried out fire-watching duties. In January 1945, a V2 bomb fell close to the pharmacy in Clapham, and badly damaged the building, probably with Borrowman inside in the air raid shelter that she had had constructed in the old cellars. Borrowman was "severely shaken" and rested away from London. She later reflected how "irksome" it was to stand back when her nerves failed her. In the same year, she converted the business into a limited company with Miss H.F. Wells and herself as directors. Miss Wells had served her apprenticeship with Miss Borrowman in 1918. The business was described in a 1954 article: "High pharmaceutical standards, judicious arrangement and sheer good housekeeping make the pharmacy a pattern to others, and keep it high in the traditions of its illustrious founder."

Professional contributions Miss Borrowman was associated with the (National) Association of Women Pharmacists from its foundation in 1905. She held numerous committee roles: for the South West Chemists' Association including as President (1929–31); for the South West PSGB Branch; as vice-president of her local branch of the Retail Pharmacists' Union; and as a member of the Pharmacy sub-committee of the British Pharmaceutical Codex Revision Committee (1934–37), the first woman to be appointed to this body. She was the first female member of the Pharmaceutical Society's Board of Examiners from 1924 until her resignation in 1937 when she felt that she wasn't able to keep up to date with current pharmaceutics. She surrendered her membership of the British Pharmaceutical Codex Revision Committee at the same time.

Later life and death Borrowman died on 20 August 1955 in a nursing home at 27 Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham, aged 73. That she left her effects to Sir Hugh Linstead, formerly PSGB Secretary and Registrar, and Jack Rowson, PSGB curator, shows her enduring links with the Society. Her funeral at South London Crematorium, Streatham Vale on 24 August 1955 was attended by Lady Jephcott, Sir Hugh and Lady Linstead, Dr Jack Rowson, Miss HF Wells and the staff of the pharmacy.

Borrowman was clearly a formidable and determined character, described in 1954 as having a "robust independence of outlook, accepting nothing that wilts under the probing beam of logic." In her obituary, it was stated that "Even in her last few weeks she remained a fighter, and during spells of consciousness would talk of people and things connected with her earlier days in the business for which she had lived and fought for forty years." An anonymous tribute to her concluded "she appeared to have an almost indestructible vitality. That she has not lived to any great age is in itself a commentary upon the lavish manner in which she dispersed that vitality."

In 2019 she was added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.