Wilfred Augustine Handley

Wilfred Handley was a 25 year old dental mechanic when he started to dilute and bottle sodium hypochlorite, a waste product bought from the chemical works, ICI Billingham, in the family’s garden shed. It’s thought that originally he was using the compound to whiten dentures (or even teeth!) but saw its wider potential as a powerful disinfectant and sterilizer. 

Wilfred didn’t invent bleach (the product created when sodium hypochlorite is diluted with water), but he was successful in the marketing and distribution of his product. He set up the Hygiene Disinfectant Company and in 1929, according to Unilever who now manufacture the product, chose the brand name ‘Domestos’, from the Latin ‘domus’ meaning house and the Greek ‘osteon’ meaning bone, suggesting ‘backbone of the home’. 

The Handley family tells it a little differently: Wilfred asked his mother what his product should be called. When she enquired what it was for and he replied, ‘Domestic use,‘ the name ‘Domestos’ suggested itself. 

At first, Domestos was marketed to local housewives and sold in large brown earthenware jars. Handley set up a system of home delivery. The jars were refilled by door to door salesmen pushing hand carts or riding bicycle carts.  

As the company grew, production moved to a small factory on the Newcastle quayside and then in 1938, move the company (now called Domestos) had moved to larger premises in Byker. The earthenware jars were replaced by brown glass bottles that allowed gas to escape. Handley sold the company to Lever Brothers (later Unilever) who continued the production of Domestos in Newcastle until 1973 when it moved to Warrington, Lancashire.