John Joseph Eastick

John Joseph Eastick (6 February 1855 – 7 September 1917) is noted for being the first chemist at the sugar refinery Abram Lyle and Sons and patenting special methods for making brewers’ saccharum, inverted sugar syrup and golden syrup.

John Joseph Eastick was born on 6 February 1855 in the seaport of Great Yarmouth and was the third son of Zacharious and Sara Eastick. His father was one of the first gas works chemists and manager of the Southtown gas works and afterwards at Peel, Isle of Man. When the family moved to Lancashire, he took up the systematic study of science, and gained an exhibition at Owen's College, followed by the Royal School of Mines, where he secured the Associateship in Metallurgy. He specialised in the technical utilisation of scientific results rather than to engage in theoretical research.

John Joseph married Julia Newlands, daughter of Mr. Benjamin Newlands and the couple had four daughters and three sons: William John Eastick, Arthur Gerald Eastick, Doris Vera Eastick, Annie, Eileen Eastick, Edie Eastick, Margaret Eastick and Lawrence Edward Eastick.

In 1880, excited by sugar’s recent rise into the ubiquity of British life, John Joseph together with his two brothers (also chemists) Charles Eastick MBE and Samuel Eastick began a sugar analysis and consulting practice in Trinity Square in the City of London. In 1881 Abram Lyle, together with his three sons, bought two wharves in Plaistow, East London to construct a refinery for making syrup. Impressed by the Eastick brothers' ground-breaking work, Abram Lyle invited the brothers to set up a laboratory at the new Plaistow Wharf refinery, where John Joseph became the first chemist at Lyle’s, ably assisted by his brother Charles. Initially the analysis of raw sugar was conducted for the purpose of establishing price and duty payments, however in 1883 tough times importing cargoes of sugar brought production to a near-halt, so John Joseph and Charles experimented with the refining process, of the bitter-brown treacle-hitherto a waste by-product of sugar refining-into an eminently palatable syrup with the viscosity, hue and sweetness of honey, leading to Charles formulating the first version of the world’s oldest branded product, golden syrup. Under the leadership of John Joseph the two brothers formulated the special methods of making brewers’ saccharum, inverted sugar and golden syrup.

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