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[John Feltham]

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Horlick, Sir  James, first baronet  (1844-1921), health drink manufacturer, was born at Ruardean, near Cinderford, Gloucestershire, on 30 April 1844, the third of four sons born to James Horlick, saddler, and his wife, Priscilla Griffiths. He was educated in Andover, Hampshire, and, having to look outside the small family concern for a career, in 1862 became an assistant to a homoeopathic chemist in London, qualifying as a pharmacist seven years later. In 1873 he married Margaret Adelaide (d. 1925), eldest daughter of William Burford, a builder of Leicester; they had three sons, the youngest of whom died in the First World War.

Horlick and his wife soon emigrated to the United States, where his younger brother William had been an accountant since 1869. While working for the Mellin Company in Chicago, makers of a powdered malt and bran baby food, Horlick devised an improved version; in 1874 he and William patented this as a 'new food' for infants and invalids (especially dyspeptics). Two years later they built a factory in Racine, Wisconsin. William oversaw production and the accounting side, while James took charge of marketing.

Their preparation rapidly became popular throughout North America and was exported to Britain. By 1882, when the brothers enlarged the factory, William was developing a new variety of the product, a malt extract with a milk base. Although it secured a number of strong medical recommendations, James was dubious and William patented the process on his own. In fact, it was such a triumph that in 1885 the Horlicks Food Company was incorporated, with James as president and William as the company secretary.

James returned to England in 1890, to open up the market in Europe and also in the British empire. He soon saw the advantages of producing in England, but William-a naturalized American citizen since the late 1880s-proved hesitant. It was not until 1905 that a Horlicks factory opened, in Slough, Buckinghamshire, technical help being provided from Wisconsin. James had to agree to meet any losses. In the event, success followed, thanks partly to publicity about the use of Horlicks on polar expeditions such as that headed by Roald Amundsen. During the First World War it was supplied in quantity to the armed forces.

Meanwhile Horlick was achieving recognition in British society, most notably in agricultural circles. In 1898 he bought an extensive property at Cowley, Gloucestershire, becoming lord of the manor there. He was appointed a justice of the peace for the county in 1900 and high sheriff and a deputy lieutenant in 1902. At Cowley Manor and on his Sussex estate, at Forest Row, he bred shorthorn cattle and Oxford Down sheep. These he exhibited both at the Gloucestershire Agricultural Society, of which he was president, and at the Royal Agricultural Society of England's shows, where he was awarded prizes or commendations every year between 1903 and 1914. He was an active patron of many of the county's rural associations.

These agricultural pursuits were intended partly to provide the company with the milk it required; the product's main ingredient came from maltings Horlick owned in Norfolk. They also gained him a baronetcy for public services in 1914. By then he was an establishment figure, an Anglican, a true Conservative, albeit on the tariff reform wing, who in 1920 had the organ of Gloucester Cathedral restored in memory of his dead son. However, his outside activities clearly hampered the company's development. It now relied wholly on the malted milk product, vulnerable because it was twice as expensive as its main rival Ovaltine, recently brought over from Switzerland where it had been invented. Neither James nor William took steps to diversify into other food products as a form of insurance. After a decade or more of expansion, therefore, the English branch began to lose its momentum after 1918. The septuagenarian Horlick's health was by then rapidly deteriorating, and he died at his London home, 2 Carlton House Terrace, on 7 May 1921. He was succeeded as second baronet by his son, Sir Ernest Burford Horlick.

T. A. B. Corley 

Sources  C. Murphy, 'Horlick, Sir James', DBB + V. Ward, 'Marketing convenience foods between the wars', Adding value: brands and marketing in food and drink, ed. G. Jones and N. J. Morgan (1994) + Burke, Peerage + WWW + Who was who in America, 1 (1943) + The Times (10 May 1921) + 'Horlick', A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary, ed. R. W. Burchfield, 4 vols. (1972-86)
Likenesses  Spy [L. Ward], engraving, NPG; repro. in VF (10 March 1909) [see illus.]
Wealth at death  £450,481 5s. 5d.: probate, 17 Sept 1921, CGPLA Eng. & Wales




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