Wright's Coal Tar Soap
However, Wright's Traditional Soap contains no coal tar, which has been replaced by tea tree oil for its antibacterial properties.
William Valentine Wright, born in 1826 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, was a wholesale druggist and chemist who had a small business, W.V.
The company's name was changed to Wright, Layman & Umney, "Wholesale and export druggists, manufacturers of pharmaceutical and chemical preparations, distillers of essential oils, manufacturers and proprietors of Wright's Coal Tar Soap and other coal tar specialities."
The company soon needed to lease adjoining premises, and in quick succession, numbers 44, 46, and 48 were added to the original warehouse at Southwark Street.
Wright met an 'untimely death' in Dundee in September 1877: "he caught a cold in the face, which developed into erysipelas, the inflammation extending to the brain, he succumbed with great suddenness at the age of fifty one".
Erysipelas is an acute infection of the skin and underlying fat tissues, usually caused by the streptococcus bacteria.
Everything turned out by a manufacturing druggist has to be supervised with the greatest care, as the retail chemist is never generally blamed for mistakes in prescriptions.
The original sin may lie at the door of the manufacturer - for this reason over every department is placed an expert, a man who has passed examinations in chemistry, under the Pharmaceutical Society, & who is absolutely responsible for the smallest product of his shop.
London used formerly to be the drug market of the world, but of late years other cities have attracted a part of this business, especially Antwerp, Amsterdam & New York.
Readers of the Country-Side magazine in 1906 were offered the chance to buy an inexpensive cabinet frame for one shilling, in which they could stack twelve empty Wright's Coal Tar Soap packets to act as sliding drawers in a cabinet for natural history specimens.
As the editorial mentioned: "the measurements have been chosen because so many of our readers are users of Wright's Coal Tar Soap".
During the first year of trading as a public limited company, the product range was enlarged to include Wright's Coal Tar Shaving Soap in powder form.
Hampshire Museum has four Coal Tar Vaporizers made by Wright, Layman & Umney in the early 20th century, and some bill-heads (invoices) which were sent to one of their customers, Messrs. Charles Mumby & Co, lemonade manufacturers of Gosport.
Wright's Traditional Soap is now made in Turkey for the current owners of the brand, Simple Health and Beauty Ltd, based in Solihull in the UK, with the claim 'With coal tar fragrance' appearing on the packaging.
Simple Health and Beauty is part of the consumer goods company Unilever UK Ltd European Union directives on cosmetics have banned the use of coal tar in non-prescription products, resulting in the removal of coal tar derivatives from the formula and replacement with tea tree oil as the main antibacterial ingredient.
