Hope Winch

Hope Constance Monica Winch (1894 – 8 April 1944) was an English pharmacist and academic.

Biography Winch was born in the vicarage in the village of Brompton, just outside Northallerton in North Yorkshire, where her father Reverend George Winch was vicar of the village's St Thomas' Church. Her mother, Elizabeth Maude Winch (née Crofton) was the daughter of Thomas Buston Crofton, also from the village.

Winch attended the Clergy Daughters' School in Casterton, Kirkby Lonsdale. After completing her secondary education, she trained for a year at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, learning practical aspects of pharmacy. She transferred to Sunderland Technical College as its first full-time pharmacy lecturer on 1 September 1921 in line with the Pharmaceutical Society's approval of the transfer of all pharmacy teaching to Sunderland from Newcastle. She was the College's first full-time lecturer in the field, and began by teaching three students and 25 ex-servicemen.

Death and legacy Hope Winch died in a tragic climbing accident on 8 April 1944. While staying at Burnthwaite in the Lake District during the Easter holiday, she climbed Scafell, a summit she had successfully conquered a number of times before. In fact, she was a member of the Rocks and Fells Climbing Club and had a wide experience of climbing including in the Alps. She had spent almost every holiday climbing in the Lake District, often acting as leader of climbing parties. On this occasion, she was climbing with Walter Johan de Cort, aged 14, a Belgian refugee of Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield. At the subsequent inquest, he told the Coroner that he had no previous experience in climbing. Winch decided that day to climb Deep Ghyll, a chasm on Scafell, which she described to de Cort as a strenuous climb. His testimony explained that at an awkward corner, while he was belayed on the rope and Winch was about ten feet above him, she seemed to let go and bounced out from the rock. She fell about 140 feet and de Cort said he attracted the attention of other climbers, who went to the rescue, forming a stretcher party and making "the difficult climb in moonlight carrying torches." She had a broken neck and severe head injuries, and the inquest concluded that she may have suffered a temporary black-out, noting that she had recently had scarlet fever and had suffered a black-out while driving, a short time before. A verdict of "Accidental death" was recorded. Hope Winch's funeral was held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Crematorium. Her ashes were scattered on Great Gable in the Lake District.

To commemorate her memory, a scholarship fund known as the Hope CM Winch Memorial Fund was founded on 28 April 1944, by a representative committee of Sunderland and District Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society, Sunderland Technical College staff and old students. The basis of the fund was a surplus of £12 5shillings raised from refresher courses held by the Branch in early 1944. Following an appeal in the Pharmaceutical Journal and through local contacts, by 11 January 1945, the fund stood at £489 11shillings and 10 pence. It was agreed that an annual scholarship would be awarded to pay a student's tuition fees for one college session. alt=A commemorative round blue plaque on a brick building with white wooden windows and columns. An additional sign reads Beech House. The first recipient of the award was George Dempster Fairweather, chosen from the 1947–1948 cohort, to pay for his fees for that years session. He was officially presented with the prize at the School's first Prize Presentation Ceremony, held in January 1949. Head of Department, Rowson used the scholarship as a catalyst to stage a broader presentation ceremony with a number of prizes supported by local pharmacists and the pharmaceutical industry, and with an address given by a noted pharmacist G.E .Trease. His aim, to raise the department's profile and encourage its development, was not greeted with support from all Technical College colleagues, but the event was a success with a total of ten prizes awarded. In 1954, a certificate was designed for the successful recipient of the Hope Winch Scholarship by the Sunderland College of Arts and Crafts, and in 1957 an honours board with past and future scholarship holders was placed in the department.

Hope Winch is still very much remembered through a society for former students, which bears her name and the awarding of the Hope Winch memorial prize to the most outstanding student in the first two years of the course. The Hope Winch Society was founded in 1984. The prize also consists of a solid sculptured glass weighing 1.5Kg with the winners named on it. The award is presented at the annual Hope Winch Lecture, an award ceremony with a lecture from a high-ranking pharmacist.