Henry Wellcome

Henry Solomon Wellcome (born 1853 in Wisconsin, died 1936) was an American-British pharmaceutical entrepreneur.

Related Topics:
1853 - Wisconsin

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He had an early interest in medicine, particularly marketing. His first product, at the age of 16 was invisible ink (in fact just lemon juice) which he advertised in the Garden City Herald.

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He was brought up with a strict religious upbringing, particularly with respect to the temperance movement. His father was a strong member of the Second Adventist Church. He was a freemason.

Related Topics:
Temperance movement - Adventist - Freemason

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In 1880 Henry Wellcome, established a pharmaceutical company, Burroughs Wellcome & Co., with his colleague Silas Mainville Burroughs. They introduced the selling of medicine in tablet form to England under the 1884 trademark "Tabloid"; previously medicines were sold mostly as powders or liquids. They also introduced direct marketing to doctors, giving them free samples. In 1895, Silas Burroughs died, leaving the company in the hands of his partner. The company flourished and Henry Wellcome set up several research laboratories linked to the drug company.

Related Topics:
Silas Mainville Burroughs - Tablet - Trademark - Tabloid - Direct marketing

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In 1910 he became a British subject.

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In 1901 He married Maud Gwendolen Syrie Barnardo, a daughter of orphanage founder Thomas John Barnardo. However their marriage was not happy, and in 1909 they had a serious disagreement and split up. After that she had several affairs, including with the department store magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge and William Somerset Maugham who she had a child with and later married. Henry sued for divorce in 1915 naming Maugham as co-respondent. This attracted large amounts of publicity that Wellcome had previously tried to avoid.

Related Topics:
Maud Gwendolen Syrie Barnardo - Thomas John Barnardo - Harry Gordon Selfridge - William Somerset Maugham

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Wellcome had a passion for collecting medically related artefacts, aiming to create a Museum of Man. Since 1976 some of these are exhibited in the Science Museum (London). He bought very widely anything related to medicine, including Napoleon's toothbrush. By his death there were 125,000 medical objects in the collection, of over one million total. Most of the non-medical objects were dispersed after his death. He was a also a keen archaeologist, in particular digging for many years at Jebel Moya in Sudan, hiring 4000 people to excavate.

Related Topics:
Science Museum (London) - Napoleon - Toothbrush - Archaeologist - Jebel Moya - Sudan

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In 1924, Henry Wellcome consolidated all his commercial and non-commercial activities in one holding company, The Wellcome Foundation Limited. In 1932, he was knighted and made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He died in 1936, and on his death the Wellcome Trust was established. In his will, Henry Wellcome vested the entire share capital of his company in individual Trustees, who were charged with spending the income to further human and animal health. The Wellcome Trust is now the world's largest private biomedical charity.

Related Topics:
Royal College of Surgeons - Wellcome Trust

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The first biography of Wellcome, was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust in the 1940s, but was never published and is allegedly available for consultation. The foundation claimed it was a hagiography and not worth publishing, even after three revisions. Very few people have seen it, and perhaps unsurprisingly there are allegations that it has been suppressed because of what it contains, as in the Brian Deer article referenced below.

Related Topics:
Wellcome Trust - Hagiography - Brian Deer

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He had a son, Henry Mounteney Wellcome, born 1903, who was sent to foster parents at the age of about three. He was considered to be sickly at the time, and his parents were spending much time travelling. Syrie never contested Henry's custosy of their child.

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