| Research and article by Richard Hall, 2017
By 1928 a new Chemist had been established at 147 Wellingborough Road on the corner of Glassbrook Road. The owner was Frank Purslow, M.P.S. and the first indication of this new shop is in the Echo advertisement in November 1928.
Frank Purslow was born in Glassbrook Road in 1896 and is shown in the 1911 census at the age of 15 as a chemist assistant. He evidently studied Pharmacy as when he started in his own business he was a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society, which could only be achieved by passing their examinations.
By 1936 he had been succeeded by Reginald Scott Wood at the premises at 147 Wellingborough Road. The Scott part of his name was his given name but he eventually incorporated it into his surname.
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1938 advert in the Tatler
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Reginald Scott Wood was an optician as well as a chemist. It is because of this that I remember him as he made my first pair of glasses after it was found that I couldn't see the blackboard at school.
He was the last of a line of chemists dating back over 150 years and came from Nottingham. His grandfather, William Henry Wood had a chemist and seedsman shop in Newark and his father, William Frost Wood owned a chemist shop in Nottingham where Reginald was an apprentice. He must have been an optician early in his working life as there is an application form, dated 1930, in his name, to become a Freeman of London as a member of the Company of Spectaclemakers.
He closed the business in Rushden sometime in the late 1940's (I seem to remember there was some sort of scandal and he moved to Reigate). Presumably he still worked as a chemist as he was on the Pharmaceutical Society Register from 1930 to 1976. He died in Reigate at the age of 94 on 18th August 2002.
The premises now house The Recruitment and Employment Bureau.
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