George Nicholas

George Nicholas CBE (1884-1960), pharmacist and philanthropist, grew up in South Australia and Victoria. After qualifying in 1912 he opened a pharmacy in Windsor. When World War I cut off German supplies of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), he set out with no instructions and primitive equipment to make some. With freelance entrepreneur Henry Woolf Shmith, he succeeded in producing a batch of pure aspirin; in late 1915, after bureaucratic delays, the pair were licenced to make and sell the drug in Australia. In 1917 they registered the name Aspro. Swapping Shmith for his brother Alfred as his business partner, through the 1920s George expanded his local business and made incursions into overseas markets. Aspro Ltd, an English company established by Alfred, became a public company in 1935. As their wealth increased, the brothers endowed hospitals, colleges and diverse charities; in the 1930s George bought a large stand of mountain ash in Victoria to provide work for unemployed youths. By 1937, they were estimated to have given away more than half a million pounds. Meanwhile, George built up a magnificent garden at Mount Macedon and became a mainstay of the Victoria Racing Club. He was the company's managing director from 1937 until his retirement in 1947, during which period it broadened its products to pharmaceuticals, vitamins and veterinary products; he lived to see the opening of a new large plant at Chadstone in 1957.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Hilton Nicholas AM OBE 2010
© Estate of Paul Fitzgerald