The first PHS Plaque

Thursday 24 January 2002 was in many ways a seminal moment in the history of PHS. At 2.30pm we unveiled our first commemorative plaque at 32 Parkhall Road, West Dulwich to mark the life and work of Alexander Parkes.
Such ceremonies are much more than mere statements of interest in a famous name from the past. They are the coming together of much hard work and enthusiasm by a team of people determined to remind future generations in a notoriously fickle and fast moving world that here lived a person who helped change your world for the better. Like all such ceremonies, when they go as well as this one, it looks an easy thing to organise. Not so; so let me repeat my vote of thanks to those who made it possible:

Design: PHS member Anthony Walker ARIBA

Construction materials: Scott Bader organised through Bryan Parkyn (PHS) and David Head (Technical manager)

Research: Dr. David Leaback, (PHS) and Jill Dudman (Lambeth Borough)

Hosts: Ron and Joan Hardy, owners of 32 Parkhall Road.

Guests of Honour: Simon Parkes (who performed the unveiling) and Kathryn Parkes

Event organiser: Jen Cruse (PHS Committee Member)

Simon Parkes, great-great-grandson of Alexander's brother, Henry, came all the way from the Isle of Man, where he lives, to do the unveiling and we must record our gratitude to Roy Manns in the USA for his funding of this event (and many others) as part of his activities to honour the memory of our late member Professor Tony Challis, to whom this website is dedicated.
The interest and support of Ron and Joan Hardy, who had their home 'invaded' by about fifty people and who most generously supplied refreshments, was amazing. To them, both plastics and Parkes had been an unknown quantity.

Percy Reboul (Chairman)