Perpetuating the legacy of a drugstore dynasty…Esmond Lachmansingh is a ‘Special Person’

May 04, 2014 News

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“If I can capture a bit of the essence of my dad’s work, managing this drug store, it would be how he developed a sense of what works, to the extent that people trust his judgment; his recommendations. People believe in him.” – Sharon Lachmansingh

By Dennis A. Nichols
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be,” according to former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill; a quote which this week’s special person, Esmond Lachmansingh, may well have chosen as the motto of his vocation, diligently managing a drug store for 45 years, and in this ‘mundane’ process, furthering the legacy of the Lachmansingh succession, begun by his famous uncle, Dr. Joseph Pariag (J.P.) Lachmansingh several decades ago.
Before venturing into the life and times of our special person, it would be apposite to give readers, especially the younger ones, a brief biographical sketch of the family patriarch, the aforementioned J.P. Lachmansingh who began and helped to establish the family business. (To avoid confusion among the many Lachmansinghs to which reference will be made in this story, I will at times refer to our special person simply as ‘Esmond’.)

Teacher, trade unionist, politician and medical doctor, J.P. Lachmansingh was one of the early stalwarts of the People’s Progressive Party with Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham at the helm, before quitting the party and linking up with the fledgling People’s National Congress after the PPP split into two factions in 1955. He had earlier helped establish a trade union when, in 1948, he teamed up with Jane Phillips-Gay and Amos Rangela to establish the Guyana Industrial Workers Union, the forerunner to the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU). It was this union that called the strike in 1948, which precipitated the slaying of five sugar workers now known as the ‘Enmore Martyrs.’
(An interesting footnote to the family history is the fact of the Lachmansinghs’ Christian religious persuasion, following in the footsteps of Esmond’s paternal grandfather, John Babu Lachmansingh, who had somewhat fortuitously converted from Hinduism to (Presbyterian) Christianity, despite strong opposition from some of his relatives.)
Esmond Lachmansingh’s story begins in Bush Lot on the West Coast of Berbice where he was born in 1941 to Elijah Dadhibal and Ellen Bhagmat Latchmansingh. His primary education began at the village school, Lachmansingh Primary, named for his uncle J.P. and his grandfather, who helped build it. His education continued at the St. Barnabas and Freeburg Schools in Georgetown, and ended at Central High School after his family had moved to the capital in 1948. At that time, his entrepreneurial uncle had already set up his first of five drugstores in the city, the last being the Regent Pharmacy, on Regent Street, managed by Esmond’s father.

Recalling his early childhood in the rural community, Lachmansingh reminisced, “My father would get one weekend in each month off from work and he would come home for that weekend. He would bring chocolates and sweets for us (the children) and we would be delighted when we saw the bus bringing him from the capital, making the turn into Bush Lot, kicking up a cloud of red dust. (From the crude brick and earth road at that time)
His idyllic country life was however brought to an abrupt end when his shrewd and pragmatic uncle, mindfully referred to as ‘the doctor’ suggested to his brother (Edmond’s father) that the family relocate to Georgetown. Thus persuaded, the family moved, and lived in one of his uncle’s houses at the corner of Robb and Cummings Streets.
During this period, his uncle was in the process of establishing several drug stores across the city which helped make Lachmansingh a household name with the connotation of excellent and customer-friendly service These included the already-mentioned Regent Pharmacy, the Stabroek Market Drug Store, run by a cousin, Croal’s Drug Store, Kitty Market Drug Store, run by another cousin, and the Bourda Market Drug Store.
Separate and apart from these entities were three other pharmacies started, and managed, by Elijah Lachmansingh and his sons. The first was one situated on Camp Street, between Durban and Norton Streets, another, less than a hundred yards away, at the corner of Camp and Norton Streets, and a third on Durban Street in Lodge. Each bore, for the first time, the family name, ‘Lachmansingh’. Thus by the late nineteen fifties, the Lachmansingh name in Georgetown had become synonymous with the pharmacy and drug service business.
Esmond related that these businesses were started in the aftermath of a family contention in which his father was fired by his uncle as manager of the Regent Pharmacy in 1950 after he (J.P.) got wind of a plan by his brother to help one of his nephews, Clement, set up his own business, implying that the store could not be properly run by a part-time manager. This however, proved to be the catalyst which goaded Elijah Lachmansingh and his sons into starting their own drug stores.

Father and sons cooperated and rented from one Mrs. Daniels, the premises at Lot 5 Camp Street, close to Durban Street, for $30 a month. This drug store was opened in 1950 with one set of shelves, one showcase, and a counter. (Incidentally, I remember this drug store very well, because the showcase contained a variety of comic books, for which I had a voracious appetite, and for a penny (I think,) you could read one right there in the store and return it to the showcase. I got into trouble with my parents on several occasions doing just this as a child.)
That drug store was at first managed by a cousin but was subsequently sold to Esmond’s sister, Enid, and her husband. He noted that because his brother-in-law did not have the services of a pharmacist, he could sell only patent drugs and cosmetics, supplemented by the sale of books; (comics and novels) nevertheless his business was patronized by many people, including such distinguished gentlemen as the late Chancellor, Professor J.O.F. Haynes, former Elections Commission Chairman, Rudolph Collins and diplomat, Lloyd Searwar.
After vacating his brother’s home on Robb Street, Elijah Lachmansingh and his family moved to another rented house at Broad and Lyng Streets in Charlestown while commuting daily to the Camp Street business, which was gradually expanding. Then in 1955, he was made aware of a drug store up for sale at the corner of Camp and Norton Streets, one with a long history that included ownership by a Mr. Selman, who subsequently sold it to the Bookers Company, which in turn sold it to a businessman named Harvey Lou Hing. Elijah bought it from Lou Hing.
Esmond noted that unlike the first Camp Street store, this one was a large building with attractive showcases and adequate living quarters upstairs.
Esmond’s father managed this business for a couple of years, while being assisted by another son Ralph, who eventually moved to the Lodge area of Georgetown where he too operated a drug store before building his own at the corner of Durban Street and Louisa Row.
Then in 1961, Elijah Lachmansingh died, and Esmond, still a teenager, was suddenly thrust into the task of running the enterprise along with his mother who, up to that time, had been juggling her job as housewife and mom with her religious commitments in the Presbyterian Church. The enterprise was now in the hands of two relative novices who had to learn the ‘drug store business’ and learn quickly, which they did.
Esmond summed up one aspect of this formidable challenge. “To operate a drug store you had to have the services of a pharmacist, which was not an easy task. In those days pharmacists were trained at the Georgetown Hospital, and there were not that many certified chemists and druggists. With drug store proprietors vying for their services, pharmacists would constantly move from one entity to another, doing so at the behest of the highest bidder, so we frequently had to be upping their wages.” In addition to this inconvenience, there was the issue of ‘keeping the books’ in order without the benefit of any real accounting skills.
One positive consequence of this was that Esmond and his mother, by paying close attention and being involved in the welfare of their business and their employees, were able to acquaint themselves with the products they sold, particularly the drugs for which prescriptions were needed, along with the advice often sought by trusting customers. He noted that they had to be very cautious in this respect since, “The Pharmacy Department/Poison Board would send representatives to examine our books, as well as to check the expiry dates of products, to ensure we had the requisite licence to sell antibiotics and dangerous drugs, and see that our signs were properly in place.”
Then almost seven years after his father passed away, death struck again. Esmond lost his mother, and he was left to shoulder the full responsibility of managing the burgeoning business at the age of 26; well maybe not alone, since two years earlier, in 1966, he had gotten married.
At the same time he had started to renovate and modernize the drug store while acquiring in his name, full possession of the establishment. His father had left the business concern to his sons and daughters in equal shares, and at a family gathering it was decided that Esmond would acquire his siblings’ shares at an agreed price.
Part of his modernizing effort at the Camp Street drug store, the now retired proprietor said, was ‘to help change the buying habits’ of his customers, especially those who had grown accustomed to buying very small quantities of certain products, including such popular items as Vaseline, senna pods, Epsom salts, cascara, Whitfield Ointment and Jeyes Fluid.
“In those days you could buy a penny worth or one or two ounces of an item like Vaseline or Jeyes Fluid. Not anymore. We now sell these items in packets, and people have adjusted well to the change.’
Esmond is thankful to all the customers who have supported his business over the years, including a clientele of loyal shoppers who equate the name Lachmansingh with reliable and amicable service.
“Our drug store is one of the oldest in Georgetown, and I am a person who doesn’t ‘make worry’ with people,” he asserted, meaning, in my opinion, that he is grateful for, and justifiably proud of both his mild temperament and his customer-friendly service.
Another aspect of Esmond’s dedication to a customer-oriented service was a decision to keep his drug store open every day until 7:30 p.m. with a pharmacist in attendance, in order to ensure that working people had access to advice about, and medications for, ailments that did not require the services of a doctor, hence his preference for the words ‘Drug Service’ instead of ‘Drug Store’ in the name of his business. Furthermore, he seldom took days off, even working on holidays and working two shifts with a post-lunch nap in between.
There seems to be no end to the Lachmansingh lineage, as Esmond divulged that his three children have all followed in the drug store business. His two sons are both pharmacists, one in Canada; the other, and his wife, in Florida. His only daughter, Sharon, also a pharmacist, now manages the Camp and Norton Streets concern after taking it over last year, before which she helped her father do so, following the death of her mother in 2008.
She expressed admiration for her father’s business acumen, saying that the fact that he didn’t have a tertiary education, had no accounting knowledge, and yet successfully managed the enterprise for 45 years, was extremely impressive, noting that he spent hours every day learning how drugs were dispensed, and that in doing so, he benefitted from the old dispensers (pharmacists) employed for those purposes.
The young proprietress added, “If I can capture a bit of the essence of my dad’s work, managing this drug store, it would be how he developed a sense of what works, to the extent that people trust his judgment; his recommendations. People believe in him.”  She added that a woman once declared, “All my people I carry to Lachmansingh; I don’t take them to no doctor!”
This assertion was reinforced by renowned tailor, Leslie ‘Jakey’ Jacobs, Esmond’s across-the-road neighbour and friend of over 40 years, and the beneficiary of his unerring advice.
“I always consult with Esmond whenever I have a complaint, and even if I have to visit the doctor, I go to him first. Once when I told him about the half-a-tablet medication I was taking for my diabetes, he cautioned me about future increases in dosage, and he was right. I always take his advice.” He added that Esmond once jokingly said that he (Jakey) should pay him the consultation fee he would have given the doctor.
Humour aside, it is obvious that Esmond Lachmansingh, because of the practical and common-sense approach to running his business for over four decades, retaining a loyal clientele, and perpetuating the legacy of the family name, is a most fitting example of a ‘special person’.

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