In 1892, one entrepreneurial couple started their own company – one aimed squarely at women. The Irristum Remedy Company would successfully market cures and pills to women over the course of the next 40 years, aiming to solve everything from ‘fatness’ to period pain or even possibly unwanted pregnancies.

The company was set up by Edward and Frances Owen. Edward was something of a chameleon, changing his name a few times over the course of his life. However, he appears to have started life as Edward Owen Jones, born in 1856 in the town of Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire, north Wales. His family were deeply involved in the social fabric of the town: his father, William, was a former governor and clerk of the Llanfyllin workhouse, before becoming the local superintendent registrar. One of Edward’s brothers was the registrar of marriages, and another had a long spell as master of the workhouse. Being involved in this kind of work did not appeal to Edward, however. He is recorded in the 1871 census as a draper’s apprentice in Llanfyllin, and it is possible that when he initially moved to London, he continued to work in this area. As his future wife, Frances Jane Allen, worked as a draper’s assistant in London, it seems likely that they met through work.

The couple married in Camberwell in 1887, and after the wedding, Edward dropped his surname, becoming known as Edward Owen, and Frances as Frances Owen. Their four children would be registered as Owens as well. The Owen family moved to 55 Denmark Hill in Camberwell sometime after the 1891 census was taken, and it is from there, in August 1892, that they first placed an advert for the Irristum Company.

Irristum would consistently advertise products aimed squarely at the female population: from remedies designed to solve period-related issues (‘a real genuine remedy for all who wish for a safe and certain cure for ailments and irregularities, such as amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, anaemia etc’) to diet pills (‘every woman can possess an elegant figure – why remain stout?’) and liver cures (‘Do you suffer from biliousness, sick headache, torpid liver, dyspepsia, or any of the other disorders that arise from the liver?’).

Other medicines, marketed vaguely as ‘the Irristum female medicine’, stated that they were powerful and with ‘rapid and certain action’. Testimonials claimed that the product worked so well in ‘fully relieving’ women that they ‘shall not require a second supply’, which suggests that it might have been an abortifacient; as F. Charles Tring wrote in his research into Victorian patent medicines, such remedies never stated explicitly what they were for, but inferred it, noting that they were ‘extra strong’, for example (Irristum stated that its ‘female medicine’ was ten times as ‘powerful’ as other similar products); at most, they would be advertised as female pills that were ‘preventives’, and perhaps marketed with books about how to limit your family, or how to deal with female ‘complaints’. Edward Owen’s books, under the name of Dr Allen, were on these exact subjects.

There was an abundance of such companies advertising in the late Victorian press, and it was hard to tell which ones were respectable. Such products as Irristum’s were examples of patent medicines – over-the-counter medicines that were advertised widely but were more panaceas than effective, scientifically backed remedies. In common with its competitors, the Irristum Company included lots of glowing comments from satisfied customers, and to show that they were apparently genuine, its manager stated his name and address, claiming to have signed a statement showing that the statements were real in front of a lawyer. This attempt at claiming honesty was somewhat marred by the fact that Edward had taken on a third name – that of Frederick Allen. Using his wife’s maiden name, he would later claim that this was his ‘business name’, designed to keep his persona as Irristum boss separate from his other identity as Welsh husband and father.

These different identities, all promoted while remaining consistent in using their real address, continued over the course of the late 19th century. Irristum would use various initials and names to suggest the owners of the company – usually some permutation of Allen (with a ‘Dr Allen’ apparently writing a booklet that customers could apply to receive), but occasionally other initials, such as NN, WP and so on.

The Owens only lived at Denmark Hill for a short period of time. In March 1893, they moved to 145 Stockwell Road in Brixton, and this would remain their long-term business address – they would also acquire a family home at Richmond. Although the Stockwell Road house has since been demolished and replaced with modern buildings, the surviving Victorian housing on the opposite side of Stockwell Road suggests what Irristum’s headquarters may have looked like: a tall terraced house with several floors. This may explain why Irristum was able to continue using the address even after the Owens moved on again and another family, the Allisons, moved in; the later censuses only record a single family living at the address, so it does not appear to have been sub-divided into flats or rooms, unless Irristum sub-leased a room to use purely as a business address.

Much of what we know about Irristum comes from Edward’s own PR. In 1896, for example, the Illustrated Police News carried what purported to be an interview with Edward, but was clearly an advert placed by him. In it, he described himself as ‘Dr Allen, the proprietor of the Irristum specialities’ and, in the style of a reporter, noted, ‘it is needless to say that, personally conducting such an extensive business, Dr Allen has very little time to spare for an interview, but we were fortunate enough the other day to catch him at the headquarters of the Irristum Company at Stockwell Road’. Frances Owen was described as ‘a lady of expert qualifications and wide experience’ who was available for daily consultations with those in need of advice. The company was said to be so successful that it had a worldwide customer base – it was so successful, in fact, that Edward (albeit with a bit of exaggeration, perhaps) stated that he had to supervise ‘the operations of a large staff of lady typewriters, clerks and assistants who are constantly employed in attending to the phenomenal mass of correspondence received daily’. Edward described himself as the company manager, but customers were directed to write to the ‘lady manageress’. This was, at least in part, a reflection of the nature of the business. The company’s emphasis on female medicine meant that female customers might be more likely to get in touch if they thought they were writing to another woman about such delicate health matters.

However, Edward was something of a ladies’ man, which although it might have been useful for the company, was understandably a bit of an issue for Frances, and their marriage – together with their business partnership – appears to have broken down. From at least 1901, Frances was living separately from her husband, and in 1905, they placed a notice in the London Gazette stating that their partnership in Irristum had been dissolved by mutual consent. However, an ‘F. Allen’ continued to operate Irristum from 145 Stockwell Road certainly until 1921. Although Frances died in 1926, Irristum continued to operate, and Edward presumably lived, until 1931. Throughout the four decades of its existence, Irristum sold the same kind of products, and used similarly worded advertisements: Edward clearly believed that if it worked, there was no point changing things. He and Frances had tapped into a good market; women needed remedies to make their lives easier, to help them maintain small families, or their health. They were convinced by reviews purportedly from happy customers, and by the highlighting of a female in charge.

The company was one of many that claimed to be able to cure women’s problems, but in the case of Irristum, it is also an example of a family-owned and run company that succeeded for years, despite the use of probably fake commendations and a fake claim on the part of its male owner to be a medical doctor. The Owens were able to succeed professionally, but behind the scenes, their success did not lead to a happy marriage. Not even the Irristum company could cure all ills, it appears.