Page 14 - Pharmacy History 22 Mar 2004

Marrison’s Pharmacy was established in Puckle Street Moonee Ponds,
and with Ethel Leighton Marrison apprenticed to her father in 1910 the future looked rosy. Ethel passed her third year in 1913, but had to wait until she turned 21 in 1917 before she could sit for her final exam.
A further blow came when her father died in 1915, and the pharmacy had to be sold.
Ethel married Harry James Murrell, who completed his pharmacy course after his return from the First World War. They then decided to establish
a new pharmacy in Moonee Ponds, and they resurrected the old name
of ‘Marrison’s Pharmacy’. They sold the business in 1950, and the new Marrison’s Pharmacy carried on under various owners until it closed its doors in 1990.
The last pharmacist in this saga of four generations is Margaret Leighton Barker ( nee Murrell), who was apprenticed to her parents in 1944 and passed her final examinations in 1947.When the family business was sold she ventured overseas and worked in London for three years at St.Mary’s Hospital, famous for its links to Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
She returned to Melbourne and worked as a hospital pharmacist
and after her marriage in 1958, she continued with part time work until retirement in 1990.
Marrison’s pharmacy.
One son, William Lucas Marrison, born in 1851, had a pharmacy in St Arnaud, Victoria for many years.
The elder son, George Oswald Leighton Marrison, was only a young boy when he arrived in Australia,
but as soon as he was old enough he became apprenticed to his father in Launceston in 1864 for a five year term. After qualifying he moved to Melbourne, and was registered in 1877, his Victorian qualification being that he had been in business in Victoria before the Pharmacy Act was promulgated on October 1st 1876.
He married and had two children, and the family lived in Williamstown until his wife died at an early age. He married again and this time his wife produced three daughters, Muriel, Ethel and Irene, and it was Ethel who decided to become a pharmacist.
His son, George Oswald Lucas Marrison, who was born in 1877, also followed the family tradition
in becoming a pharmacist. He was apprenticed to his father, but did not complete his academic examinations and he worked as a dispenser at the Police Hospital in St Kilda Road, Melbourne for many years.
Editor’s Note: We always welcome
any stories about pharmacy dynasties, and the Marrison family, whilst not exceptional by any means, beautifully illustrates one of the unique aspects of pharmacy and that is how the torch can be handed down for many generations.
14 ■ Pharmacy History Australia
volume 2 ■ no 23 ■ July 2004