Origin story - The birth of our first family business by Ann Lamb

Catherine Parry sitting in her Grandmother's Office Chair, 1991

Raymond Anthony Lamb always had an interest in things chemical and medical to the extent that his first job on leaving school was in a chemist’s shop (a pharmacy these days). Furthermore, his two-year National Service was spent in the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps). Subsequently, a family friend secured him a position in the Pathology Laboratory of a local hospital, Edgeware General.  It was here that he first encountered the use of wax for embedding specimens of, say, biopsies, for a process to follow whereby, in layman’s language, a miniscule ‘slice’ could be mounted on a glass slide for examination under a microscope.  A change of employment was to follow at a later date when Ray went on to take up a position as a representative for a firm of suppliers of equipment etc to pathology laboratories and the like throughout the country.  As such, he travelled the UK building up good and valuable relationships within these labs.

There came a point, however, when Ray’s mind wandered back to the subject of the type of wax used in the lab at Edgeware General – and, for that matter, in all hospitals. The wax back then was of an industrial nature, being supplied in the form of very large unwieldy slabs.  It fell to the staff to have to smash and break up these slabs before they could be melted. Ray’s thoughts went along the lines that it surely could be supplied in a more user-friendly condition, and of improved quality by the addition of certain additives.  With the agreement and partnership of his wife, Ray set about putting his ideas into practise by setting aside a room in the house for production of this new form of wax.  A large tank with filter-fitted tap was installed, together with a small gas ring on the floor alongside. He then erected shelving along the length of one wall.  Wax in its original form was then ordered for delivery on a regular basis - but subjected to a totally different process.  As previo

usly the case, the slabs still had to be broken up before insertion in the tank.  However, at the same time, a specified small amount of a polymer was put to melt in a household saucepan on the gas ring, the resultant molten contents then being poured and stirred into the contents of the tank, providing a product of vastly improved quality with the added advantage of the filter removing any impurities. The  new form to replace that of slabs came about by pouring the final mixture in the tank into ice cube trays, Ray having purchased stocks of these from a store popular in those days -Woolworths.  The filled trays were transferred to the wall shelving and left to set.

Before full production was put in hand, samples of these small cubes were sent to all those contacts Ray had previously established in laboratories around the country, these immediately attracting universal enthusiastic interest in favour, confirmed by a subsequent continuing flood of orders.

My mother and I had had to learn the tricky process of speedily filling the trays without spillage and, having acquired this skill, we went into full production.  Once the tray contents had set, we manually expelled the cubes into cardboard boxes, capacity 28 lbs, ready for dispatch.

At a later date after leaving the house and moving to local premises owned by Pauline’s aunt, Ray and I used a pelletiser (on the lines of a giant household mincer) to produce the wax in an even smaller version than the cubes – pellets.  These were filled into handy-sized boxes similar to those of soap box flakes. Of course, improved means of production were to follow until such time it was fully automated.

It was, indeed, the wax that eventually proved to be ‘the tiny acorn from which a mighty oak grew’!

Ray's entrepreneurial spirit continued to inspire the genrations that followed with the birth of new businesses and new entrepreneurs.

Henry and Catherine i360 event Brighton 2024