RAWDON company W B Cartwright is hardly a household name - but some of its products have made their mark around the globe.

The manufacturing chemists produced a popular range of perfume and was also the birthplace of a tablet used by indigestion sufferers all over the world.

Company director John Rennie was the man who invented the famous indigestion remedy which bears his name and which is still widely sold today.

Mr Rennie is one of the five directors pictured in an undated photograph (left page) from Aireborough Historical Society. He can also seen (front left) in group photograph of the first Aireborough Urban District Council taken outside Micklefield House in 1937.

When that photograph was published in the Wharfedale Observer in 2014 Mr Rennie’s granddaughter Patricia Bartlett, of Calverley wrote in to give more details about him.

She said: “He was born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1883, qualified as a chemist with retail businesses in Blackburn and Chorley, and in 1910 he joined Sir William Cartwright as chemist and managing director of W.B. Cartwright manufacturing chemists at Larkfield Mills, Rawdon. He lived at Tarn Grange, Larkfield Road, Rawdon, until his death at the age of 77 in January 1961.

“Rennies indigestion tablets (still in production today) were named after him.

“He had also been chairman of the bench of Otley Magistrates and a past provincial master of the Royal Wharfedale Lodge.”

Patricia and her sister Ann Webster added: “We have no documentation to authenticate the origin of Rennies, however it has always been our understanding that grandpa gave his name to the tablets which we believe were manufactured at WB Cartwrights. The formula was subsequently sold and to-day they are manufactured by Roche.”

All the photographs appear on the website of Aireborough Historical Society, where a grandson of an employee who worked for Cartwrights also confirms the link with indigestion tables.

Andrew Ellis said: “My grandfather, David Ellis, worked at Cartwrights from 1915 to his death in 1954 at the age of 70. He was recruited from the Midland Railway Goods Yard in Hunslet, Leeds for his knowledge of the railway system. His job was to organise the import of raw materials and the export of finished goods.”

He added: “Note that Mr John Rennie, who appears in the picture of Directors at Cartwrights, invented the Rennie indigestion tablet.”

Another photograph on the right hand page shows five more employees of the manufacturing chemists company which was in the old Larkfield Mill. Pictured are J C Nicholson, P Milne, J North Brown, A E Ashley and B W Dear

Other images show the despatch department where men can be seen packing the products into crates, the drug stock room, and men at work in the machine room.

One image is captioned “Hand granulation for medicinal tablets” and another shows the packing and finishing department, which seems to have been mainly staffed by young women.

Another picture shows an advert for “Episode” perfumed, which was manufactured by Cartwrights and sold under the more romantic sounding De Fleury company name. The De Fleury name was also used for Lady Gay perfume and cosmetics. Cartwrights was a hugely successful company which employed two overseas representatives at one stage. W Hermon Slade operated in Australia, and S A Smith covered New Zealand.