Herbert Ingram

Ingram was born at Paddock Grove in Boston, Lincolnshire, the son of a butcher. After being educated at Laughton's Charity School and the free school in Wormgate (a street in Boston), he was apprenticed as a 14-year-old to town printer Joseph Clarke. When Ingram finished his training, he moved to London, where he worked as a journeyman printer.

In 1832, Ingram established his own printing and newsagents business in Nottingham, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Cooke. As a newsagent, he noticed that when newspapers included woodcuts, their sales increased. He concluded that making a good profit would be possible from a magazine that included a large number of illustrations. However, a while was needed before he could put this theory into practice.

In 1841, Ingram launched 'Parr's Life Pills', a patent medicine which he claimed was based on a recipe devised by Thomas Parr, a man believed to have lived for 152 years. Although the pills had no provable medical benefit, Ingram's marketing methods were very successful, and the profits from the pills provided the capital that enabled him to set up The Illustrated London News.