James Lofthouse grave (17th May 1841 to 21st May 1906)

I usually find there’s a permanent hush across the small port town of Fleetwood in Lancashire. There's an on-the-edge-of-nowhere feel about it. The Lofthouse family have made it famous. They’ve made a fortune manufacturing and selling 5 billion/year Fisherman's Friend lozenges around the globe. Their big factory is still there. Other companies doesn’t seem to invented a rival lozenge to put a dent in their £65 annual million sales. The major shareholder is the Lofthouse Foundation who hold 67.4% of the stake. Here I am the grave of the man who started it all.

James Lofthouse was a pharmacist inventor who was born in 1841 and lived in Fleetwood. One evening he was out for a stroll on the front and got chatting to some deep-sea fishermen who tried to tell him about the catch of the day. With bad throats and blocked chests they could only talk in croaks. An idea scudded across James's mind and the next day he blended liquorice, eucalyptus and menthol and poured it in to three bottles. He gave it the fishermen to try and they were thrilled with the results.

James had invented a liquid that would become the world famous Fisherman’s Friend lozenge. Bottles weren't practical - on ships they got dropped and smashed so he thickened the liquid and when it dried it became a lozenge. Soon not only did the fishermen of Fleetwood know about this super lozenge so did others a mile down the coast in Blackpool. Word spread to the public - they seemed to like the flavours and healing powers. They wrote to Lofthouse family asking why can only people around the north west coast could buy this lozenge? There was an immediate demand for the Fisherman's Friend-Van doing deliveries.

Soon after came the first export to Norway - a few boxes. The lozenges seem to fix the respiratory problems suffered by fishermen working in the extreme cold. Soon Lofthouse Of Fleetwood was sending not boxes full containers to Scandinavia. Quantities doubled and doubled again. Soon folk all over Finland and Sweden were sucking lozenges (which is now based on the buttons of a dress by Doreen Lofthouse.)

James only made it to 65 but left the company to the family. While in Fleetwood I thought it only respectful to find his grave and here it is in the older section of the cemetery. I lost count of the Lofthouses lying under that stone. No flowers to testify James's invention which led to an empire which still thrives today (there was a wreath shoved to one side.) I did a salute and left.

The company wouldn’t be the global phenomenon is today without Doreen Lofthouse. She married James’s grandson Tony and turned the dock-based firm into an international powerhouse selling lozenges across 120 countries. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used the lozenge when her throat became strained from public speaking (and French President Emmanuel Macron sucks them too.) The couple have died and I went to find their grave a church in the centre of the town.

Doreen became one of the richest women in the UK and left about £50million to a charity named Lofthouse Foundation. It was set up in 1994 by Doreen and her family for the purpose of refurbishing her hometown of Fleetwood. Now directors in charge of the charity decided how to spend the money on Fleetwood. Good work Doreen. I did a salute and left.