Soap for Saving Life

• Lifebuoy Royal Disinfectant Soap advertising inset
• Text from the back:
  Eminent medical men, officers of health, and trained nurses,
  recommend Lifebuoy Soap for use during epidemics.
• 140 x 222mm (5½ x 8¾in)
• circa 1895-1910

With the advent of coronavirus one of the protective measures is to wash your hands with a little soap and water for at least twenty seconds, soap is one of the most effective ways to get rid of COVID-19.

The English company, Lever Brothers founded by William Hesketh Lever, introduced the first anti-bacterial soap in 1895. The soap was marketed for use in the prevention of sickness and the preservation of health in the home and named "Lifebuoy" to represent the life-saving properties of the product.

To further reinforce the prospective customers life-saving belief in the soap the illustration records a momentous event on the night of 7 September 1838 when, Grace Darling, a lighthouse-keeper's daughter, rowed out with her father in stormy seas to rescue the surviving passengers and crew of the Forfarshire steamboat wrecked off the Farne Islands.