Thomas Holloway [1800-1883] was the pioneer of mass advertising, the founder of product placement, a driving force behind the establishment of the pharmaceutical industry and a champion of mental health care and women’s education. As an entrepreneur he was unequalled, devising a product which could tap into an existing world-wide distribution system and into a popular system of belief about how the body worked, which scientific advances had done little to shift.
‘The 1st ointment that I made was in my mother’s saucepan, which held about 6 quarts; an extra jump was in a long fish kettle and after that her little copper, which would hold about 40lbs.’
The success of Holloway’s pills and ointment lay in his extraordinary ability to publicise his patent medicines worldwide.
Holloway was a household name less than ten years after starting his business, expanding it across the world in another five years. In a world before mass advertising, he spent every penny he could on publicity. When Charles Dickens started to serialise “Dombey & Son“, Holloway sent him a cheque for £1000 with the request that he mention Holloway’s pills in each episode (Dickens refused).
Holloway came to be described during his lifetime as “one of the wonders of the nineteenth century”.
Holloway was not without his critics. In the late 19th century certain medical professionals claimed that Holloway was a quack and a charlatan after an article published by the Chemist and Druggist in 1880 criticised the ingredients used in his medicines. The article stated that the medicines effectiveness was highly questionable and ‘would have had a placebo effect at best’. The fact that his pills were said to have had only a placebo effect upon its users shows the extent to which Holloway’s advertising played a central part in the products’ success.
With his fortune, Thomas Holloway bought Tittenhurst Park in Sunninghill, Berkshire. Here, he lived with his wife Jane. He dealt so widely and shrewdly in shares that he built a second fortune from his dealings, and fears were expressed upon his death that the sale of his holdings could cause a stock market crash. In the 1870s he had his own bank.
In December 1883 Thomas Holloway died at Tittenhurst Park of congestion of the lungs and all of his remaining estate was left to, his late wife’s sister, Mary Driver.
Tittenhurst Park famously became the home of musicians John Lennon and Yoko Ono and then the home of Ringo Starr and family [from 1973 until 1988].
Sources of information:
[1] The Pills & Potions of Thomas Holloway: A Glimpse into the world of the Victorian Pharmacy
[2] THE LEGACY OF THOMAS HOLLOWAY (1800-1883)
[3] British Newspaper Archive