2024-12-31-accounts - British Society For The History Of Pharmacy

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Charity Number: 1166134

British Society for the History of Pharmacy

Report and financial statements For the year ended 31[st] December 2024

British Society for the History of Pharmcy

Reference and administrative information

for the year ended 31[st] December 2024

Charity number 1166134 Other names BSHP Registered address Associaction Enterprises, Unit 9, Cartwright Court Cartwright Way, Bardon Hill Coalville, Leicestershire, LE67 1UE

Trustees Trustees who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:

Chris Duffin Chair, resigned March 2024 Robert Mark Nesbitt Vice-President (Chair from March 2024) Selina Hurley Hon. Treasurer, resigned March 2024 Roy Allcorn Hon. Secretary, resigned March 2024 Catherine Walker Vice-President, appointed March 2024 Jemma Houghton Hon. Treasurer, appointed March 2024 Matthew Johnston Hon. Secretary, appointed March 2024

British Society for the History of Pharmcy

Trustees’ annual report

for the year ended 31[st] December 2024

The trustees present their report and the unaudited financial statements for the year ended 31[st] December 2024.

Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the charity’s constitution and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP.

Objectives and activities

The object of the charity is to advance education for the public benefit in the history of pharmacy by:

Stimulating interest in and promoting and encouraging research and study in the history of pharmacy nationally and internationally;
Furthering the publication of studies in the history of pharmacy;
Organising meetings and conferences for the reading of papers on the history of pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences and medicine; and
Establishing contact nationally and internationally with other societies for historical studies.

The trustees review the aims, objectives and activities of the charity each year. This report looks at what the charity has achieved and the outcomes of its work in the reporting period. The trustees report the success of each key activity and the benefits the charity has brought to those groups of people that it is set up to help. The review also helps the trustees ensure the charity's aims, objectives and activities remained focused on its stated purposes.

The trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity's aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.

Achievements and performance

Annual General Meeting 2024

The 56th Annual General Meeting of the Society was held on Saturday 23rd March 2024 at the Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds.

A quorum of Members attended the meeting.

At the AGM the following Trustees (Office Bearers) were confirmed:

President: Professor Mark Nesbitt

Vice-President: Ms Catherine Walker

Hon. Treasurer: Dr Jemma Houghton

Hon. Secretary: Mr Matthew Johnston

The 2023 Annual Accounts were agreed unanimously by those members attending the meeting.

British Society for the History of Pharmcy

Trustees’ annual report

for the year ended 31[st] December 2024

Meetings of Committee

The Committee met four times during the year (5th February, 13th May, 7th October and 16th December). All these meetings continued to be held online.

Name Comments

Mr R T Allcorn

Dr S C Anderson

Dr J Crellin

Dr C Duffin

Ms A Heath

Dr J Houghton New committee member 2024

Ms B Hudson

Dr M H Jepson

Mr M Johnston

Prof M Nesbitt

Ms C Walker

Dr K Walker

Committee membership changes in 2024: Selina Hurley stood down from the committee at the AGM, with Jemma Houghton taking over her role as Honorary Treasurer. Mark Nesbitt took over as President as Chris Duffin's term came to an end, with Catherine Walker stepping into the Vice President role vacated by Mark, and Matthew Johnston took over from outgoing Honorary Secretary Roy Allcorn.

Membership

Total membership (including 3 Honorary Members) at 31st December was 152.

Movements in the year have been as follows:

New members: 9 / Resigned or deleted: 4

Meetings/Events

Committee meetings and public talks continued to be held online. No summer annual visit was arranged.

On-line Lecture Programme

Our successful series of free online discussions and talks continued in 2024. Bookings were administered using Eventbrite at the start of the year until the platform introduced a fee, after which bookings were managed in-house via the events@bshp.org email address.

British Society for the History of Pharmcy

Trustees’ annual report

for the year ended 31[st] December 2024

Talks were held on Zoom with the majority also being livestreamed on YouTube, where recordings are also held. The 2024 lecture programme was as follows:

Monday 20 May 2024: "Brebajes, Yerbas and Pharmacopoeias: Healing Materiality and the Imagination of the Early Modern Caribbean" by Professor Pablo Gomez, University of WisconsinMadison
Monday 8 July 2024: "Geological drugs and prophylactics" by Dr Chris Duffin, Natural History Museum, London
Monday 7 October 2024: "History of medicinal plants in the Qur'an and other religious texts" by Dr Shahina A Ghazanfar, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Monday 25 November 2024: "The making of a quinologist: The work of John Eliot Howard (18071883)" by Dr Kim Walker, Royal Holloway

Annual Spring Conference March 2024, Leeds

Twenty-one people bought tickets for the event and 19 attended including 16 BSHP members. Delegates had travelled from Portugal, Serbia, Germany and South Africa to join the event, with half the speakers and 10 of the delegates first-time attendees. The conference theme was Public Pharmacy, although the talks were wide-ranging.

Following a new format, the formal programme took place on one day, Saturday 23 March, with optional dinners arranged in city-centre restaurants on Friday and Saturday evening, and hotel suggestions made for delegates to book themselves. The Saturday programme was based in the conference suite of the Thackray Museum of Medicine. For the first time, we solely sold tickets through Eventbrite, although we organised one invoice for a member who wanted her institution to pay directly. Many thanks to Matthew Johnston for grappling with the intricacies and opacity of Eventbrite.

The following short papers were given on the Saturday morning:

Daisy Cunyhame Charitable Pharmacy: The Medicines of a Late-Eighteenth Century Scottish Dispensary
Chris Duffin Obstetric and Gynaecological Stones
Maria do Sameiro Barroso Metal Piston Syringes: from the Graeco-Roman authors to Albucasis (936-1013 AD) and later authors
Jelena Manojilovic The Elderly Town Pharmacy in Obrenovac and its Owners
Alexandra Stone A social and spatial history of pharmacy in Johannesburg, 1894–1939
Kevin Goodman The Druggist in the Time of Cholera

The Saturday afternoon was free for delegates to explore the Museum, with an optional talk by museum volunteer (and BSHP member) Parmanand Mistry in the apothecary jars gallery.

The Annual General Meeting was held at 4pm.

Pharmaceutical Historian

Four issues of the Pharmaceutical Historian: An International Journal for the History of Pharmacy (Vol. 54, Nos. 1,2,3,4) were published during the year dated March, June, September and December. Stuart Anderson continued with the editorship continuing the current arrangement to publish the journal on-line (with Ingenta) and thus internationally with the International Society for the History of Pharmacy (ISHP). Printed copies continued to be produced and sent to all members who wanted them in that format. PDF copies are sent by email to members opting for a digital subscription, primarily those based overseas.

British Society for the History of Pharmcy

Trustees’ annual report

for the year ended 31[st] December 2024

BSHP Gazette

Four issues of the Gazette, our quarterly newsletter, were produced and mailed out to coincide with mailing the four issues of the Pharmaceutical Historian . From the June issue the Gazette was redesigned under the editorship of Kim Walker, with some issues expanded to include more news and features.

BSHP Website (www.bshp.org) and Social Media

The BSHP website was redesigned and relaunched in March 2025.

Many new membership applications were received via the web-based form and paid for using the associated on-line PayPal payment system.

The number of our followers on Facebook and Twitter continues to grow and is now an important means of keeping everyone interested in us up to date.

Awards – Peter Homan Small Grant Scheme

This scheme was launched in early 2023. It invites applications at any time of year, with closing dates set at 31st May and 30th November. Applications are considered by a team of four members of the BSHP Committee, consisting of individuals with curatorial and research experience.

At its meeting on 4th June 2024 the Panel considered the two applications received:

A request to support MPhil research into ‘The Transformation of British Pharmaceutical Regulations, 1962-1971’ (University of Cambridge). Funding would be used for research costs including transcribing and editing, as well as travel for presentations. Grant criteria met: Travel for archival research. Outcome: Grant of £250 made.
A request to support a project by the UCL School of Pharmacy Library to digitise the School's official students’ publication, the Square Chronicle. Funding would be used to digitise the 19121939 volumes of the publication. Grant criteria met: Engagement through providing public access to resources. Outcome: Grant of £616.90 made.

The Panel decided to exceed the total award of £500 as there had been no applications in the previous round.

There were no applications for the period to the end of November 2024.

Awards - Leslie Matthews Medal

The Leslie Matthews Medal is the BSHP's highest award, presented for original and scholarly work in the history of British pharmacy, and last awarded in 2018.

Following nominations and discussion by the awards committee, in 2024 the medal has been awarded to two recipients:

Dr Anne Stobart, for her work on 17th century domestic medicine and as founder of the Herbal History Network
Dr Christopher Duffin, BSHP Past President, for his work on geology and pharmacy

British Society for the History of Pharmcy

Trustees’ annual report

for the year ended 31[st] December 2024

Secretarial support

In December 2024 the committee agreed to bring secretarial duties in-house from 1 April 2025. For the last 17 years these services have been provided by Associaction Enterprises.

Appreciations

The Committee wishes to put on record its thanks to Catherine Walker at the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for her help and support.

We are also indebted to Associaction Enterprises for undertaking various Secretariat and office-based duties for the Society.

Financial review

The unrestricted funds held at as at the 31[st] December 2024 were £54,172.

Reserves

The charity does not have a specific reserves policy as we maintain an investment account that would cover and exceed any running costs over the next 12 months. As at the 31[st] December 2024, this was £40,000.

Structure, governance and management

Governing Document

The organisation is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), registered in 2016 in England and Wales, operating under a constitution.

The trustees are members of the charity, but this entitles them only to voting rights. The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits or remuneration from the charity. No expenses were reclaimed from the charity.

Recruitment and Appointment of Trustees

There must be at least four Charity Trustees, who will be Officers of the charity: the President, the VicePresident, the Honorary Treasurer and the Honorary Secretary. If the number falls below this minimum, the remaining trustee or trustees may act only to call a meeting of the Charity Trustees, or to appoint a new Charity Trustee.

Officers are proposed and voted in at the Annual General Meeting.

In addition, up to eight Ordinary Committee Members shall normally be elected by the BSHP membership for a term of three years. The Trustees and Ordinary Committee Members may decide to co-opt up to two additional ordinary committee members, bringing the total number of Trustees and Ordinary Committee Members up to a maximum of 14 at any one time.

British Society for the History of Pharmcy

Trustees’ annual report

for the year ended 31[st] December 2024

Statement of responsibilities of the trustees

Law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the charity's financial activities during the period and of its financial position at the end of the period. In preparing financial statements giving a true and fair view, the trustees should follow best practice and:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently
Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent
State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charity's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The trustees’ annual report has been approved by the trustees on 05/04/2025 and signed on their behalf by

Mark Nesbitt (Chair)

British Society for the History of Pharmacy

Receipts and Payments Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2024

Receipts Memberships Annual conference Peter Homan Bursary RPS Royalties Interest Total receipts Payments Charitable expenditure Associaction Enterprises costs Committee expenses Conference expenditure Insurance Fees Peter Homan fund payments Pharmaceutical Historian printing and costs Society of Apothecaries student support Subscriptions (BSHM, ISHP, ISHP journal hosting) Total payments Net receipts / (payments) for the year Bank and cash balances at start of year Bank and cash balances at end of year	2024 £ 3,664 848 50 - 1,210 5,772 2,992 - 877 154 23 867 1,083 - 420 6,416 (644) 54,816 54,172	2023 £ 4,638 8,542 5,005 2 382
		18,569
		2,613 617 6,548 154 - 500 1,619 110 944
		13,105
		5,464
		49,352
		54,816

British Society for the History of Pharmacy

Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31st December 2024

Bank and cash balances Investment CAF Shawbrook deposit Liabilities Membership income in advance	2024 £ 54,172 40,000 660	2023 £ 54,816
		45,000
		175

Notes

a) All the charity's funds are unrestricted. Unrestricted funds are available to spend on activities that further any of the purposes of charity.
b) The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011. As a lower-income charity under section 133 of the 2011 Act, the trustees have elected to prepare the charity's financial statements using the Receipts & Payments basis.