Death in Monte Carlo

On the afternoon of Friday 8 February 1895 a sad procession wound its way from the English church in the Avenue de Grand Bretagne, southwards through the streets of Monte Carlo to the cemetery at Boulevard Charles III, which perches on the hillside on the edge of town at Fontvielle. The chief mourners were Olive Chase Burroughs and Mrs Laura Riggs, wife and sister of Silas Mainville Burroughs, cofounder (with Henry Wellcome) of the Burroughs Wellcome & Co. pharmaceutical company. It must have been a large and impressive funeral cortege, with no expense spared: an oak coffin, and masses of flowers and palm leaves being laid in the tomb and strewn all around.

Burroughs’s sudden death shocked and saddened many people. He died within three days of contracting pneumonia, and until then had enjoyed pretty good health (although subject to colds and catarrh). Only 48 years old, he was in his prime, full of energy and ideas. He left behind a wife, three small children, and a hugely successful pharmaceutical company, which had grown to international renown since its foundation 15 years earlier. The sadness was the greater, because Burroughs was a man who inspired friendship and loyalty. His warmth and generosity, concern for others, and desire to help his colleagues and fellow men were mentioned by all his obituarists.

The irony of his death may well have crossed the minds of the mourners - that Burroughs, a fit man and a keen cyclist, who had spent his life promoting the effectiveness of pills and medicines, should die in this way. No potion could cure him, not even one form the huge range offered by his company. The Cote d’Azur was increasingly popular by the end of the century for its healthy airs and those who could afford to, the English especially, often wintered there. But the climate failed to help Burroughs. One obituarist blamed his death on the fact that he caught a severe chill whilst cycling, which seems plausible as he cycled at every opportunity. This was, of course, the age before antibiotics, and pneumonia was a killer.

The image of Belle Epoque, the Cote d’Azur and Monte Carlo, with its frivolity and extravagance, sits oddly in relation to Burroughs’s character. Anti-gambling, a near-teetotaller, who worked incredibly hard, Burroughs was also a deeply religious Presbyterian, a radical liberal, and very concerned with issues of poverty and the unjust wealth of those who gained money without working for it. The money spent on his funeral would almost certainly have displeased him, since in his will he had requested that he be cremated or buried in the earth enclosed only in a basket.

Visiting Monte Carlo in March this year I was able to find the grave. I found that Olive Burroughs is buried with him and that she died only ten years later, aged 54.

It was a shock to discover a notice on the grave saying that the cemetery authorities had decided it had been abandoned and would reclaim it for another internment unless notified of any interest in it. Needless to say I immediately expressed an interest and this has been reiterated by the Trust, which has agreed to finance the necessary repairs to the tomb in order to ensure its preservation.

Burroughs was, after all, the initiator of the pharmaceutical company. It was he who set up the original company in 1878, then invited his friend Henry Wellcome to join him, as junior partner, putting up the necessary money in 1880. Burroughs was an outstanding salesman and an astute businessman who played a crucial role in building up the name and reputation of the company in those crucial early years. Its success was a shared one, in spite of the deterioration of the friendship with Wellcome. Had Burroughs lived longer it is interesting to speculate what would have happened to the company. The partnership agreement was in the process of being renegotiated, and almost certainly the company would have been split, possibly into two firms. But with Burroughs’s death Wellcome became sole proprietor.

The neglect of Burroughs’s grave seems almost symbolic of the lack of attention paid to his life and work. I hope that with his biography there will be a recognition of his role in the history of the pharmaceutical company (the origins of the Wellcome Trust), of the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, and of a fascinating character whose life was packed with activity.

Julia Sheppard, who is carrying out research for a biography of Burroughs, is Head of Special Collections in the Wellcome Library. The Wellcome Library acquired Burroughs’s papers from his family as well as early records of Burroughs Wellcome & Co. from Glaxo Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline).