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In 1854 a London pharmacist, Thomas Whiffen (1819-1904), joined a small firm manufacturing chemicals run by Edward Herring and Jacob Hulle at Trinity Square in the Borough. After the withdrawal of Herring in 1858 and the retirement of Hulle in 1868 the business was continued by Whiffen at his house in Lombard Road, Battersea. Chief products were of medical application, including poisons and alkaloido, mostly prepared from raw material that the firm imported. Whiffen claimed his trade in strychnine to have been the first of its kind in Britain. Overseas trading, including much re-exporting, became an important part of the firm's activity. A short-lived laboratory was set up in 1858 and was re-established by Frank Moul in 1884.
In 1887 Whiffen formed a partnership with two of his sons, Thomas Joseph (1850-1931) and William George (1852-1934). In the same years the firm moved to Southall, where it acquired the Aldersgate Chemical Works, and it also took over the business of George Atkinson (est. 1654). Another concern with which Whiffen was associated was the St Amand Manufacturing Co. Ltd, which had been set up jointly with T and H Smith and JF Macfarlan and Co for the preliminary processing in Belgium of an extract used as a source of salicin.
By the 1890's Whiffen and Sons had become one of Britain's leading fire chemical businesses. It became a limited company in 1912 with a nominal capital of £200,000. In 1947 it was acquired by Fisons Ltd.