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Qualifications and related records for pharmacists from 1841 onwards
Under the 1852 Pharmacy Act the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists, the first statutory register of pharmacists, was established.
The 1868 Pharmacy Act stipulated that the minor examination was to become the legal minimum requirement for new entrants to the profession. Successful candidates were required to register with the Society, and were listed on the Register of Chemists and Druggists, published annually. Before taking their examinations, most candidates spent several years of apprenticeship with a practising pharmacist followed by a course of study, often by correspondence or part time at one of the many schools of pharmacy. Other candidates studied full time at a school of pharmacy.
Employees who had qualified before 1868 (ie, associates), and those who had been in business on their own account prior to this year, were included automatically on the Register of Chemists and Druggists.
Pharmacy assistants who had been working for three years or more prior to 1868 were able to take a special modified examination qualifying them as a Chemist and Druggist. All pharmacists on the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists in 1868 (and after this date) were also automatically included on the Register of Chemists and Druggists.
The Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists was also published annually as from 1868, and the major examination continued, providing a more advanced qualification for those who wished to go on and achieve this.
As from 1954, the Register changed its name to the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists, this title being applied to all pharmacists. This was a result of the Pharmacy Act of 1953, which introduced the Pharmaceutical Chemists Diploma as the new single professional qualification for pharmacists. The category of Chemist and Druggist was abolished, and those registered as Chemists and Druggists were transferred onto the Register under the designation of Member of the Pharmaceutical Society (MPS). Those whose names had formerly been on the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists were now designated Fellows of the Pharmaceutical Society (FPS). Newly qualified pharmacists registering from 1954 onwards were required to complete one year of practical pre-registration training after their three year course of study. In 1967 it became compulsory for all new pharmacists to obtain a pharmacy degree, followed by a year's practical pre-registration experience, in order to register. Some qualifying university degree courses approved by the Society had existed since 1924, but 1967 marked the end of the Pharmaceutical Chemists Diploma.
From 1997 all British pharmacy degrees have required a four-year course of study.
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