Charles Tanqueray was born in 1810 and was the son and grandson of clergymen. He was more interested in science, though, and in particular the science of making gin. He and his brother Edward got jobs at a distillery, where they learned the skills of the gin-maker.

A few years after founding their own Tanqueray Distillery in 1830, Charles and his brother opened a shop to sell their gin, and from there the company expanded until, in 2016, it overtook Beefeater as the best-selling gin brand in the world with over 3 million cases of their various gins sold. The key gin, though, still remains that original Tanqueray London Dry Gin.