{{short description|British businessman active in Japan}} {{Infobox person | name = Alexander Cameron Sim | image = Alexander Cameron Sim (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1840|08|28|df=y}} | birth_place = Aberlour, Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1900|11|28|1840|08|28|df=y}} | death_place = Kobe, Japan | other_names = | known_for = Creating ''Ramune'' and founding the Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club | occupation = Pharmacist, entrepreneur }} '''Alexander Cameron Sim '''(28 August 1840 – 28 November 1900) was a Scottish-born pharmacist and entrepreneur, active in Japan during the Meiji period. He developed the ''Ramune'' soft drink and founded the Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club.
==Biography== left|thumb|upright=0.65|Alexander Cameron Sim monument (Higashi Yūenchi park, Kobe, Japan) Alexander Cameron Sim was born on 28 August 1840 in Aberlour, Scotland.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=1902 |title=The Chemist and Druggist of January 5 1901 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKQhAQAAMAAJ |journal=Chemist and Druggist: The Newsweekly for Pharmacy |volume=60 |pages=7}}</ref> He was the son of an Aberlour river fisherman.<ref name=":2" /> Sim grew up in a small farming community, later becoming an apprentice to a pharmacist in the nearby town of Turriff. He relocated to London and received a post as a pharmacist at the Royal London Hospital in 1862. He also became a prominent member of the London Scottish Rifles.<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis |last=Swanson |first=Darren Lee |title=Treaty Port Society and the Club in Meiji Japan: Clubbism, Athleticism and the Public Sphere |date=31 December 2016 |publisher=The University of Sydney |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/212690118.pdf}}</ref>{{Rp|page=315}} In 1866, he volunteered for an overseas assignment and was sent to the Royal Naval Hospital in Hong Kong, where he spent the next three and a half years.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=322}}
In late 1869 he moved to Nagasaki, Japan, where he resided in the treaty port, and in 1870 he moved to Kobe, where he initially worked as a pharmacist for the foreign firm J. Llewellyn & Co. Medical Hall. He later took over the company, changing the name to A. C. Sim & Co. Medical Hall.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=|pages=322–323}} Sim's company specialised in the import and distribution of medicines and medical supplies.
In 1884, Sim introduced a carbonated beverage based on lemonade to the Kobe foreign settlement. This drink—called "mabu soda" ("marble soda") due to the marbles placed in the bottle for opening action—soon became very popular with the local Japanese after it was advertised in the ''Tokyo Mainichi'' newspaper as a preventative for cholera. The drink remains a popular soft drink, sold worldwide, under the name of ''Ramune''.
A strong supporter of athletic activities, Sim founded the Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club on 23 September 1870. He also set up a volunteer firefighting organisation within the foreign community and built a fire lookout tower near his residence. He organised relief and community support efforts in the aftermath of the 1891 Mino–Owari earthquake and the 1896 Sanriku earthquake.<ref name=":2" />
Sim died on 28 November 1900 of typhoid fever; it was suspected that he contracted the disease from eating raw oysters on a trip to Osaka with a friend.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Lepach |first=Bernd |title=SIM, Alexander Cameron |url=http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_s.html |access-date=14 December 2023 |website=Meiji Portraits}}</ref> His funeral, documented in the ''Japan Chronicle'', was described as unprecedented, with the entire Japanese population of Kobe gathering to line the streets and mourn his death.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last1=Abel |first1=Charles Gene |last2=Thomson |first2=Albert Adams |date=2021 |title=A History of the Order of the Scottish Samurai |url=https://charlieabel.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/2019-21-a-history-of-the-scottish-samurai-awards-v2.pdf |pages=31–33}}</ref> Sim is buried in the Kobe Foreign cemetery on Mount Futatabi.<ref name=":3" /> A monument was erected to Sim by his friends in Higashi Yūenchi park, Kobe, in 1901.<ref name=":0" />
==References== *Murphy, Kevin C. ''The American Merchant Experience in Nineteenth-century Japan''. Routledge (2002) {{ISBN|0-415-29683-8}} <References/>
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110727000819/http://www.krac.org/history.html Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sim, Alexander Cameron}} Category:1840 births Category:1900 deaths Category:19th-century Scottish businesspeople Category:19th-century Scottish inventors Category:Deaths from typhoid fever in Japan Category:People from Moray Category:People of the Meiji era Category:Scottish emigrants to Japan Category:Scottish pharmacists Category:19th-century British pharmacists