125 stories for 125 years

Edward John Barr Dammery

Edward (Ted) Dammery graduated from the college in 1928. He was in the same class as Miriel Witt, who beat him for the Gold Medal in their final year.

Initially, Ted entered the University of Melbourne in 1921 to study science but discontinued the course after a year. His younger brother, John, was already studying pharmacy and Ted followed him into pharmacy in 1923.

Ted was apprenticed to Harry Lay in Chapel Street, Windsor .

After graduation he managed a pharmacy in Collingwood, which was then still a very working class suburb. He told many stories of that time. One involved being robbed on Christmas Eve. After the robber had left, another of the regular customers – a small-time criminal whom Ted had previously treated for a bullet wound – came in to wish him a happy Christmas. He saw what had happened and said, ‘I know who done this’. The small-time criminal came back with the perpetrator and made him return all the missing goods.

In 1930 Ted left Melbourne to go to Queensland to manage pharmacies for the Wilkinson chain. He worked in Brisbane and Rockhampton before opening a new Wilkinson pharmacy in Toowoomba. It was in Toowoomba that he met his wife and they were married in Brisbane in 1935.

In 1936, expecting their first child, they moved back to Melbourne and bought a pharmacy in Elsternwick. They stayed there until 1940, when they bought Ted’s brother’s pharmacy in Ormond. Ted stayed in Ormond until 1965. After a brief retirement, he moved to Yarra Junction and ran the pharmacy there until 1975. He continued to do relieving work until his eventual retirement in 1984.

Ted was an early member of AMCAL and served on the board of AMCAL for most of his time in Ormond. At the time of his death – July 2006 – he was probably the oldest qualified pharmacist in Australia , certainly in Victoria .