James Brinsmead and his wife Harriet (nee Pyrke) left England for Australia in June of 1879, a few months after they were married. The undertook a 120 day trip from London to Melbourne on the  wool ship Mermerus run by the Golden Fleece Line. It only carried 15 passengers including James and Harriet Brinsmead.

James was born in St. Giles in the Woods in Devon in 1845. He was baptised Thomas James Brinsmead, the son of Thomas and Emily Brinsmead (nee Cock). We know little of his early life. He appears on the 1851 census, age 6, a scholar, living with his parents on the main street of St. Giles village.  In 1878 he married Harriet Pryke (born 1836) in Lambeth, London, England. By then he appears to have taken training as a chemist, because he is listed as such on the ship's passenger's list shown below.
 

Once in Australia, James Brinsmead set himself up as a dispensing chemist. We have little indication so far of where James first settled. However,  we do know that he ran chemists shops in both Traralgon, a country town East of Melbourne, and in St. Kilda, just to the South of Melbourne. An account of Traralgon in 1908 speaks of the shop of James Brinsmead being located on the corner of Franklin and Seymour Streets.

James Brinsmead's chemist shop in St. Kilda, in the Ripponlea area is said to have been built by him in 1913 and rebuilt as a showpiece in 1918 by a Frank Damyon. It is still an operating pharmacy, now known as S. Rosenblums. Brinsmead's Pharmacy was restored with the help of Heritage Victoria. They describe it as one of Victoria's finest chemist shops on account of its shopfront and fittings. They say "Leadlight was a common feature of commercial retail buildings built early in this century but rarely was it deployed so extensively and  with such skill as in this instance."

Fragments of Brinsmead's original signage and insignia remain and the leaded glass work is indeed magnificent.  The names is still laid out in tile on the front door, and a cast nameplate still identifies the original owner. A fragment of an old advertisement remains on the side wall, despite repainting and the inevitable efforts of graffiti artists.
 

The appointments inside the shop are also true to period and well preserved, although we were unable to take photographs.

 

Brinsmead's Pharmacy advertised extensively in the regional press. This advertisement appeared in the newspaper in Geelong about 100 kilometres away.  It suggests James may have acquired a few languages in his time. Like other pharmacies of the time, Brinsmeads also used their own glass dispensing bottles which, today, are collectors' pieces.
 

James Brinsmead died in 1916 in Fitzroy South, Victoria (Victoria Great War Index, 1916 Reg. No. 5853). Harriet died in 1921 in Malvern East (Victoria Great War Index, 1921 Reg. No. 14658, Age 85). We know of no children.