Queer Places:
16 The Pavement, London SW4 0HY, United Kingdom
Margaret Elizabeth Buchanan (26 July 1865 – 1 January 1940) was a British pharmacist and a pioneering figure for women in the pharmaceutical profession.
Born in Clerkenwell, London, she was the daughter of Albert Buchanan, a physician, and Elizabeth Anne Blake. Her formative education took place at the North London Collegiate School. She received her early practical training through an apprenticeship with her father, followed by further experience under Isabella Clarke-Keer and her husband Thomas Keer. In 1886, she enrolled as a student at the Pharmaceutical Society's School of Pharmacy located in Bloomsbury Square. She passed her Minor examination and registered as a Chemist and Druggist later that same year, before successfully passing her Major examination in 1887. Her academic excellence was marked by winning a silver medal for taking second place in the Pereira competition, making her the first woman to achieve this distinction.
Her professional career commenced when she took a position as a hospital dispenser at the Westminster General Infirmary, becoming the first registered member of the Pharmaceutical Society to hold the post. Recognizing the rising trajectory of female pharmacists, she wrote in 1892 that "it is becoming recognised by the public and the trade that women can be both business-like and well-trained scientifically, the number of lady-pharmacists will doubtless increase as the field further opens up." In October 1914, when Henry Deane's pharmacy at 16 The Pavement, Clapham Common became available, Buchanan seized the opportunity to establish a business that would bolster the professional standing of women. She operated as one of four directors who were all registered women pharmacists, alongside Agnes Borrowman, Sophia Heywood, and Margaret MacDiarmid. The enterprise served as a crucial training ground; by 1923, out of 15 young women from the business who studied at the Pharmaceutical Society School of Pharmacy, 14 had won prizes and scholarships. Buchanan eventually transferred the business to Borrowman in 1924.
Education remained a core pillar of her life's work. By 1913, she had established the Margaret Buchanan School of Pharmacy for Women at Gordon Hall in Gordon Square. An early listing for the school appeared in The Chemist and Druggist journal on August 16, 1913, reading: “Miss Buchanan trains ladies in pharmacy. Apply by letter for particulars of courses and individual coaching.” She offered a 10-month course preparing students for the examination of the Society of Apothecaries for a fee of twenty-one pounds. Students divided their time between coursework and practical shifts at the Clapham pharmacy, working three in the morning and three in the afternoon. By 1914, the school's principals were listed as Margaret Buchanan and Sophia Heywood, with Miss D. Maughan joining the staff by 1917. By 1921, Buchanan had stepped away, and Elsie Hooper and Katherine King took over as joint proprietors. In addition to her school, Buchanan lectured in pharmacy at the London School of Medicine for Women and was an active member of the Teachers' Guild.
Her impact on institutional leadership was equally profound. In 1905, she co-founded the National Association of Women Pharmacists, serving as its inaugural Vice-President before taking over as President in 1909. A landmark moment arrived in 1918 when she was elected as the first woman to sit on the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Reflecting on the historic breakthrough, a contemporary noted, "The consternation that arose in certain quarters is one of those things not easily forgotten." Demonstrating her global diplomatic reach, she traveled extensively across Canada in 1922 as the Council’s representative, successfully negotiating a reciprocity agreement between the Society and the province of Ontario. Furthermore, she chaired the Society's Benevolent Fund Committee and strongly championed the creation of the University of London Bachelor of Pharmacy degree, which was instituted in 1924. Forced to retire in 1926 due to failing health, she was lauded in The Chemist and Druggist as holding "the front rank among the women pharmacists of the British Empire."
Upon retirement, she moved to Devon, where she passed away on New Year's Day in 1940. A commemorative retrospective encapsulated her legacy by describing her as “the woman among British pharmaceutical women, a guide, philosopher, and friend to many of them.” Continuing her posthumous recognition, she was added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in 2019.
Historical documentation and mainstream biographies do not identify Buchanan as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, nor do they record explicit queer advocacy or romantic partnerships. Her historical importance lies squarely in her tireless campaigns for gender equality and professional access. Nevertheless, within queer historiography and scholarship surrounding late-Victorian and Edwardian "new women," independent career pioneers like Buchanan—who forged close homosocial and professional networks with unmarried female colleagues, directors, and educators—are frequently examined through the lens of historic female alliances and alternative models of independent living.
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