Tribute: Terence Dudley Turner

Terry registered as a pharmacist in 1955 and, throughout his long and varied career within the profession of pharmacy, he was always one of its principle protagonists. He began his academic career in 1957 as a lecturer in microbiology at the Welsh School of Pharmacy, and progressed to become senior lecturer in pharmacognosy and head of the Pharmacognosy department. He gained his MPharm in 1960 for work on the pharmacognosy of certain species of Strychnos.

He became a specialist in surgical dressing research and was the founding director of the school’s surgical dressings research unit. In 1969, Terry initiated the first quality control and evaluation programme of wound management in the UK. In 1970, he was appointed chairman of the then Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (PSGB)’s committee on surgical dressing performance, and also to the British Pharmaceutical Codex’s sub-committee on surgical dressings. He acted for many years as consultant pharmacist to the Welsh Office and all-Wales dressings committee.

Terry was also co-editor of the Journal of Wound Management and a member of the European Pharmacopoeia advisory group. In 1980 he joined the UK government’s Committee on Dental and Surgical Materials. He was also a founding member of the committees for the European Wound Management Association and the Veterinary Wound Healing Association. Terry was actively involved with the Welsh executive of the PSGB from its inception in 1976 until 2000. He chaired the executive between 1980 and 1981.

He was also a founding member of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy, which was established in 1967, and was presented with their Leslie Matthews Medal in 2017 in recognition of his original and scholarly work on the history of British pharmacy. Terry was also a past president of the Welsh History of Medicine Society.

In the early 1980s he commenced his display of historical pharmaceutical artefacts in Cardiff University’s Redwood Building. He also established an exhibition of pharmacy history at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in 2000, and acted as curator and advisor on pharmaceutical artefacts to the National Museum of Wales.

Terry was designated a Fellow of the PSGB in 1976 for ‘distinction in the profession of pharmacy’, and was awarded an OBE in 1989 for services to pharmacy in Wales. In 1991 he was awarded the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain’s Charter Silver Medal.

He was an unique member of the pharmacy profession and his former colleagues and students agree that they would not have achieved their career successes without his initial support and encouragement as he truly cared about their development. Pharmacy in Wales will miss his wisdom, passion and dedication.

Sarah Cockbill, Mair Davies, Mark Gumbleton and Bryony Harmer 

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Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, November 2019, Vol 303, No 7931;303(7931)::DOI:10.1211/PJ.2019.20207309

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