I started my career in food technology with Unilever Reseach, Colworth House, where I developed an interest in fragrance chemistry following my involvement in the extraction of flavour and odorous materials from natural products.
When the opportunity to join a perfumery company arose, I joined Proprietary Perfumes Ltd. in Ashford as a trainee perfumer in 1966 where I was to learn about all aspects of perfumery. After a period of training I opted to focus on functional and household perfumery, the technical and creative challenge being suited to my chemistry background. Household perfumery offered a broad spectrum of products with which I could work, from a very hostile bleach to a relatively innocuous air freshener or candle. Stability and performance are paramount as without these the credibility of the fragrance (and the perfumer) is lost.
I stayed with PPF, as it was eventually named, for 18 years where I established an expertise in household and functional products. In 1984 I joined Firmenich to strengthen their household perfumery group and was involved in the setting up of a Household Expertise centre in London. In 1992 I was awarded the prestigious 'Diplome de Maitre Parfumeur' a great honour for a perfumer of household products. After 15 happy years I retired from Firmenich and have since been working back at Ashford as a Consultant Perfumer with Quest International supporting the household group in Naarden. Over the years I have created fragrances for many major international brands for Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, Reckitt & Coleman,  Procter & Gamble, and S.C. Johnson.

2) Who were your mentors?

Randall Davis, who was the Chief Perfumer at Proprietary Perfumes was my first tutor and had a great influence in my early days as a trainee. Tony Morris helped me greatly through my period of training and was later very supportive during my transition to Firmenich. David Cartwright was always at hand to encourage and advise.

3) What changes have you seen in the industry since you started your career?

a) Technology - Computerisation in every aspect of the business has led to improved communications, better knowledge and access to information: advances in instrumentation have enabled chemists to recreate natural products, provide analyses of fragranced products and monitor fragrance stability more effectively. Formulas, once hand written and costed are a thing of the past, even compounding is now being done by robots!

b) Safety Legislation has made a significant impact on the way perfumers create perfumes.

c) Change from natural to synthetic fragrances, as a result of cost, quality, continuity of supply and stability. It is no longer possible to
include high levels of natural ingredients in, say, a lavender or pine needle fragrance; that's not to say fragrances are poorer as a result, new synthetic introductions have often more than compensated for the reduction of natural ingredients.

4) Can you name some positive and some negative factors about working as a perfumer back then?

Positive: Most of the Perfume houses seemed to be more independent, they were managed by people who came up through the business and consequently had a "family" feel about them. Now senior management are more from a business background. Maybe I'm being a little cynical but perfumery seemed to be more fun then (or am I getting old!). Creatively we were much less restricted by legislation, nowadays much of the creative time is taken up in modifying formulae to conform to safety requirements.

Negative: Information and global communication was less prevalent in the past.  Then, many major brands were limited to 1or 2 variants, now, brands have more variants with more adventurous fragrances allowing a broader creative scope.

5) What are your plans for the future?

I hope to continue working for a while longer on a consultancy basis, however, when I finally retire I hope to remain fit enough to enjoy
my many hobbies and hopefully continue to keep in contact with my many friends and colleagues in the business. I have had a wonderful career in the perfumery business which has given me the opportunity to visit many parts of the World including periods of secondment to India and the USA. Without doubt, choosing a career in perfumery was one of the most inspired decisions of my life.

6) What is your favourite perfumery material?

This is a difficult question to answer as I have so many, patchouli and vetivert as well as bergamot, ylang-ylang and geranium Bourbon are among my favourite naturals whilst galaxolide, methyl dihydrojasmonate and aldehyde MNA are among my favourite synthetics. Of the more recent introductions I particularly like dynascone, bourgeonal and the damascones. I missed (as I'm sure so many others did) the demise of musk ambrette and the restrictions on other nitromusks. It has been exciting to have been at the cutting edge over the past 40 years to see the introduction of many new materials and to discover how to use them to the best advantage.
The first fragrance materials I ever recall were citronellol and geraniol whilst working at Colworth House, I was so struck by their fantastic rosaceous character I went to the library to find out more about them. This led to further studies into fragrance materials including the essential oils and my enthusiasm for perfumery was born.

If you ask me what makes a good perfumer I would say apart from having a good 'nose' a perfumer needs to have a good olfactory memory, to be able to recognise fragrance materials and the subtle differences between them. One must learn how to put ingredients together to create accords and then to use these to generate unique fragrances which have the perfumer's individual style built in. For the household perfumer an understanding of the chemistry of both fragrance and product is essential, without this the integrity of
the fragrance (and the perfumer) is lost. There are many more aspects to becoming a good perfumer, not least an understanding of the market, changes in trends and fashions; a perfumer who knows what is happening in the fine fragrance market will have an advantage.