Where is the anointing oil for the coronation made and kept? At a pharmacy, of course

An urgent compounding request 70 years ago led to a pharmacy in the U.K. having the only sample and recipe for the anointing oil used in the coronation of that country’s—and Canada’s—monarchs. John Bell & Croyden pharmacy became the official pharmacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1958, but it served the Queen before that, when it needed to step in and make the special oil. “Usually, a batch is made to last a few coronations,” James Gray, healthcare services manager at John Bell & Croyden pharmacy explained to Chemist and Druggist. “When the turn of Elizabeth II came in 1953, it was discovered that while sufficient quantity would have remained from the anointing oil used for her father, it had been destroyed during the London raids of the Second World War in May 1941 when it was kept in the deanery of Westminster Abbey,” he said. The pharmacy that made the anointing oil prior to the Second World War was no longer in business, but the recipe was not lost; a former employee had kept some oil as a souvenir. The surgeon apothecary compounded some new anointing oil to be used on the coronation day for Queen Elizabeth II. The oil contains roses, oranges, cinnamon, musk and ambergris. Two bottles of the oil are now kept locked up at John Bell & Croyden pharmacy, Gray told Chemist and Druggist. He said that the pharmacy has contacted the palace and are awaiting instructions for when the oil will be needed for the coronation of King Charles III. While the pharmacy went under a major renovation in 2015, its history is tied to the development of the pharmacy profession in the U.K. John Bell opened the pharmacy in 1798. His son Jacob Bell founded the Pharmaceutical Society in 1841, now the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. He was also the first editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal. The pharmacy was acquired by Savory & Moore in 1928 and later became part of the LloydsPharmacy chain, which is part of McKesson U.K. John Bell & Croyden was originally granted a Royal Warrant on behalf of King George V in 1909. Whether it will get a Royal Warrant from King Charles III is not known. Royal Warrants follow the household, not the title, according to the BBC. Warrants granted by King Charles III when he was Prince of Wales will continue, while those granted by the late Queen will expire. The pharmacy bills itself as “London’s Luxury pharmacy” and carries a wide range of skincare and health products. It also has a dental hygiene clinic, a pain management clinic and offers pharmacy services such as COVID-19 and flu vaccinations and diabetes screenings. Read: Then and now: How Canada's medical and health sciences schools have advanced Indigenous health

Where is the anointing oil for the coronation made and kept? At a pharmacy, of course

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