Tribute to Robert Trevor Hutchinson

It is with much sadness that I write this tribute. Trevor, as he was known, was a well-respected, conscientious and hard-working pharmacist colleague and a good friend. Although our pharmacies were fairly close, we never thought of each other as rivals and helped each other as much as possible.

After attending Keighley Boys Grammar School, he did his apprenticeship at Timothy Whites Pharmacy, followed by the Pharmaceutical Society’s qualifying examination (PHC) at Bradford Institute of Technology, as it was then. After qualifying he did his national service and was stationed in Berlin. On completion, he went back to Timothy Whites in Keighley where he met his wife Barbara and worked in Steeton, West Yorkshire, and also Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. He then worked with Michael Starling who he knew from college and came to live in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. When their pharmacy was “leapfrogged”, an opportunity arose for him to purchase his pharmacy in York whilst still living in Tadcaster.

He was a keen historian and an enthusiastic member of both the Tadcaster Historical Society and the British Society for the History of Pharmacy (BSHP). In fact, it was Trevor who encouraged my husband and me to join BSHP and attend their spring conferences. He was an active member of the York and district branch of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and had served as its chair.

Trevor was also an accomplished artist and enjoyed painting and visiting art galleries. He loved his garden and I was full of admiration for the rockery he built and the fruits and vegetables he grew. He also regularly delivered “meals on wheels”.

For the last few years he had been caring for Barbara, who was badly affected by Parkinson’s disease and she sadly died on 4 December 2015. It was such a shock to learn that just one month later Trevor himself had died.

I will miss his friendship and quirky sense of humour and my thoughts are with his daughter Fran, son Iain and partner Steph, and granddaughter Sophie at this very sad time.