Farewell to ICI, Britain’s leading industrial company for most of the 20th century. The splintered rump has now been acquired by the Dutch company Akzo Nobel.

ICI was formed in 1926 by the merger of Nobel Industries, United Alkali, British Dyestuffs and Brunner, Mond. In the uncompetitive manner of those times, American, German and British companies – Du Pont, IG Farben and ICI – divided the world into spheres of influence. ICI’s markets were the British empire and Commonwealth and the company’s strengths and background were in dyestuffs and explosives.