Men of Mark.
ALEXANDER BOTTLE, J.P., M.R.C.V.S., F.C.S., "The Father of the Pharmaceutical Council."
Our man of 80, mentally and physically alert, jovial, and who rarely misses a meeting of committee or Council - such is Mr Bottle, whom Mr Hampson, in 1891, happily called the "father of the Council." Mr Bottle's connection with the Pharmaceutical Society dates from 1842; he just missed being a founder. At the annual meeting in 1858 he was elected a member of the Council. There was no contested election that year, "because" (in the words of Mr Jacob Bell, then President) "only the exact number had been proposed for election." The Council, as elected, consisted of the following gentlemen: -
Ballard, Edwin, Farringdon, Berkshire
Bell, Jacob, 338 Oxford Street
Bird, William Lionel, 42 Castle Street, Oxford Street.
Bottle, Alexander, 37 Town Wall, Dover.
Brew, Thomas A, 71 Earl Street, Brighton
Bucklee, William Henry, 86 New Bond Street.
Davenport, John Thistlewood, 33 Great Russell Street.
Deane, Henry, Clapham.
Edwards, George, Dartford.
Edwards, John Baker, 42 Berry Street, Liverpool.
Hanbury, Daniel Bell, Plough Court.
Hollier, Elliott, Market Place, Dudley.
MacFarlan, John Neill F, 17 North Bridge, Edinburgh.
Meggeson, George, 64 Cannon Street.
Moore, James Lodge, 1 Craven Street.
Morson, Thomas, N R, 19 Southampton row.
Peacock, Hamerton R., 170 High Street, Poplar.
Sandford, George Webb, 47 Piccadilly.
Squire, Peter, 277 Oxford Street.
Standring, Thomas, 1 Piccadilly, Manchester.
Wall, George, 177 Regent Street.
Of all these men are only three survive - Mr Bottle, Mr Davenport, and Mr J B Edwards (who is now in Canada). Mr Bottle's service as a councillor has been continuous since 1858, and this period of 40 years is a record, no past or present councillor approaching him by a decade. Mr Bottle served as Vice President of the Society under the late Mr Thomas Hyde Hills for three years, from 1873 to 1876, and again under Mr Carteighe for four years, from 1888 to 1892.
In 1890 Mr Bottle completed the 50th year of his business career as a pharmacist. He commenced business in the present premises in Town Wall Street in 1840; but the fact did not seem to be known to his Dover colleagues, who then entertained him to dinner, that in the year before - viz., in 1839, he qualified as a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. In those days the veterinary examinations were conducted by a board mainly composed of eminent medical men, Sir Astley Cooper being Chairman, and it was in the Chairman's house that Mr Bottle was examined. His M R C V S certificate is signed, Astley Cooper, J A Paris (the author of "Pharmacologia"), Joseph Henry Green, Richard Bright (a name perpetuated to us in Bright's disease), Edwards Stanley, and William Sewell (Professor). The Pharmaceutical Society had no examinations when he joined, otherwise Mr Bottle would have passed them; for he was a good student of science, and was particularly well up in chemistry for as early as 1846 he lectured to his fellow-townsmen in Dover on coal-gas, with the immediate result that the gas-lighting of the town was much improved. Later and for many years he acted as gas-examiner - in fact, when sound opinions regarding scientific matters were wanted by Dover people they seemed naturally to turn to Alderman Bottle. He was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society twenty five years ago. On the Pharmaceutical Council Mr Bottle is very highly respected. He is not a stickler for precedent, but his experience of 40 years' business, and clear recollection of it, is of immense assistance to his fellow-councillors. He rarely makes speeches, but there is no one at the table who is quicker to pick out a slip or question a policy. His sentence or two, spoken quietly but weightily, are as effective as a lively speech would be from most men. His fellow-councillors showed their appreciation of him in 1891 by having his portrait painted and hung on the Council chamber walls, and, at the same time, he received from them a set of diamond studs. Mr Bottle is the only Vice-President of the Society who has received the honour of official portraiture during his term of office. He comes of a long-lived race, and we may yet have the privilege of recording the completion of his Jubilee as a pharmaceutical councillor.