Hope Winch

Hope Constance Monica Winch (1894 - 8 April 1944) was an English pharmacist and academic.

Winch attended the Clergy Daughters' School in Casterton, Kirkby Lonsdale. After completing her secondary education, she trained for a year at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, learning practical aspects of pharmacy, then worked for three years in the hospital's dispensary.

Winch then moved to London and studied at the School of Pharmacy at the University of London, qualifying as a chemist and druggist in 1917. Following graduation, she worked in the university's research laboratories for two years. In 1920, she was appointed lecturer in pharmacy at Sunderland Technical College, now the University of Sunderland. She was the university's first full-time lecturer in the field, and began by teaching three students and 25 ex-servicemen. In 1926, two additional lecturers were appointed and Winch opened a dispensary; in 1928, she opened a laboratory for drug preparation.

In 1930 the university's pharmacy department was recognised by the University of London for teaching its bachelor of pharmacy degree off-site, one of the first such recognitions in England. Winch was officially appointed the head of the department.

Death and legacy

Winch died in a climbing accident while climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District in 1944. In 1984, the University of Sunderland established the Hope Winch Society, an alumni organisation for pharmacy graduates.