Pathology

[alistairmac]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering whether anyone knows anything about pre-war qualifications in pathology? My father died in 1962 when I was 4. His occupation listed on my birth certificate, his marriage cert to my mother and to his first wife in 1938 is pathologist. However, I have yet to find any conclusive proof that he ever was a pathologist. He was working as a chemist in the lab of a company called Lautier Fils Ltd in London when he married my mother.

To be able to practice pathology in the NHS or for the Home Office these days you need to be an MD and be on the BMA Medical Register. However, I know this was not always the case. According to the history of the Pathological Society, on their website, qualifications were only standardised towards the end of the war. After 1944 pathologists had to be registered with the BMA.

I have checked the BMA register from the late 20s to 1962 and cannot find my father listed in any year. So are there any experts in medical history out there who might know how people became pathologists before the war. What qualifications would they have had and where might they have studied. My father was born in 1906 (Glasgow), so would have graduated in the late 20s if he went to university. My mother thought he went to Edinburgh University, but they have no record of him there.

Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Alistair

[Currie]

Hello Alistair,

Lautier Fils Ltd had something to do with the manufacture of flavourings, essences, etc

It seems that in 1938 in Edinburgh there was a pathology examination not only for degrees in medicine and surgery, but also in science.
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/albums/u ... 1/1938.JPG

I've seen lists in The Scotsman newspaper archives of those who passed pathology and other university examinations. Have you tried there? I don’t know whether they always published such lists or whether all would be findable. If you tell us his name I could have a look, or you could just send me a PM if you wish.

There was also animal pathology as well as the human variety.

All the best,
Alan

[johnniegarve]

How about Plant Pathology?

[alistairmac]

Hi Alan and Johnnie,

Thanks for your responses.

Lautier Fils did make essences from plants, so you may be on to something Johnnie! They were a French company based in Grasse. My father's friend was a director of the Chiswick operation and got him the job in the lab. Apparantly, my father gave up his pathology practice in the mid 1950s and got this job so he could spend more time with his first wife who was very ill at this point.

Thanks for the Edinburgh article Alan. I guess it's OK to reveal his name as he died 50 years ago now: Robert McGowan. We know that he did not attend Edinburgh University on any course as they have confirmed this.

He moved to London from Glasgow in the late 1920s. I've been able to trace him on the London electoral rolls (which are available on line) from 1929. Strangely, I can only find him in the London phone book in 1932, he is listed as "McGowan, Robert, Laboratory". I know that's him as it's the same address as the electoral roll entry for that year which also lists his parents. I can't find him in the phone book again until 1962, the year he died. It's very odd.

I was thinking of going back to basics. Does anyone know whether it is possible to trace someones education from primary school? Robert was born in Yoker, Glasgow in 1906 and was still living there in 1911. I'm guessing he would have gone to the local school. Would any school records exist anywhere?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks
Alistair

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings from New Zealand.

Re PHONES.
It's all to easy to be judging the past while in today's thinking mode. Every one has them, whether you consider then a luxury or not.

Back pre WWII in NZ, it was only the businesses and well established private homes that had a phone listing.

And then in many cases subscribers were on PARTY LINES with upwards of a ten or more subscriber’s sharing a number followed by a letter, the Morse for which [S = three dots or short rings; with no dashes or long rings] was the phone users indicator the phone call was for them. If you wanted to place a local call to someone sharing your number you had to crank the crank generator, with the correct number of short and or long cranks, to tell them you wanted to speak to them.

Therefore people used not only street public phones, but also the phone of the nearest neighbour with a phone installed.

It was after WWII before my Mother's family got their own home phone, prior to that they went two streets away to the home of cousins who ran a small carrying business from their home, and had a phone, principally for business reasons. Then there was also a very efficient telegram service. I assume it was much the same in Scotland.

Alan SHARP

[StewL]

Hi Alan
I came to Oz in 1963 (showing age) and phones were a rarity in homes, my friends parents had one, but his dad was a manager for a firm that worked around the clock.
A telegrams, I remember them well, I was a telegram boy for the post office In Scotland I can't remember any nearby relatives who had a phone, although there probably was one. Dad would go down the road to the phone box if he had to make a call.

[Corsebar]

Hi Stewie.

Re phones:
How correct you are in saying that next to no one had phones in Scotland in the 1950's and before. The only person that i can recall was my Grandmother, would take it that one of her many children must have paid for it. Can still even remember the number, Possil 7102.
My father who had a shoerepairing business didn't didn't get one until the mid 60's, also his leather merchant in Glasgow didn't have one either. At an early age, can still remember having to get the bus from Paisley to around the Gorbals area to put in his order for nails, glue, leather etc.

Ray

[johnniegarve]

Alistair, Grasse is a centre of growing lavender, jamine etc' for the French perfume industry.

[Currie]

Hello Alistair,

I didn’t have any luck with the newspapers I’m sorry to say.

The Internet Archive has NLS Glasgow Directories up to about 1927. Maybe checking them for the family could produce a clue. http://archive.org/details/scottishdirectories

His earliest school, unless a boarding school, would probably be the closest school to where they lived. Whether there are useful records for it would be a matter of luck. They may have ended up somewhere like the Mitchell Library.

Parliamentary Papers, 1908 [Cd. 4003] has “A list of day schools aided from parliamentary grant”. Here they are for the vicinity of Yoker but I don’t know how that would show on a map. I think it refers to Renfrew (Landward) School Board District and has schools: Oswald, Moorpark, Scotstoun, Yoker, and St James (R.C.). http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad28 ... ls1907.jpg

In Australia, in 1970, when my grandfather died, my aunt used a neighbour's phone to ring a friend of my mother's, who then walked down to the other end of the street to tell mum what had happened. Nowadays we are slaves to the telephone, it’s like a ball and chain.

All the best,
Alan

[SarahND]

My in-laws in Belgium didn't have a phone until the mid 1980s. When our daughter was born we had to send a telegram to let them know Got some brilliant scrambled telegrams from my parents when they were in India in the 1970s.

In France (where I am currently located) the post office was always the PTT (post, telephone and telegraph) where not that long ago one used to be able to send faxes also. We had to send a fax the other day and the internet fax site was down, so went to the post office. "Sorry, Madame, this is no longer possible." We finally ended up in a tiny shop that reminded me very much of the places I used to book "trunk" calls from when I lived in India. There were booths for people to phone from, etc. and, miraculously, a fax machine. And wifi... A mixture of old and new. You can't find a public phone booth here any more otherwise, since everyone has mobile phones and they stopped fixing the public phones when they broke down.

Best,
Sarah