National Benzole was a petroleum brand used in the United Kingdom from 1919 to the 1990s. In 1957, the National Benzole Co. became wholly owned by Shell-Mex & BP (through British Petroleum) but continued its separate trading identity. In the early 1960s, National Benzole was re-branded as National and continued trading as a UK retailer of petroleum products until the early 1990s, when the brand was phased out by parent company, BP.
Foundation
National Benzole was founded in February 1919[1] in a room next to the boiler house of the Gas Light and Coke Company in London's Horseferry Road. In the early years of the century, benzole production had been small scale. However, because it was as good at propelling shells as motor cars, production was expanded massively during World War I. This generally led to a post-war "benzole-lake".
A group of men, including Samuel Henshaw, then the chairman of the Staffordshire Chemical Company, reckoned there was money to be made from these surplus-to-requirements stocks. Henshaw became the first chairman of the National Benzole Company.[1] Although the idea of using benzole to power automobiles was not new, cars fueled on neat benzole needed altered carburetor settings which was inconvenient for owners who had previously used petrol and the effectiveness of neat benzole as a paint stripper raised concern about the possible effect on carburettor floats made of varnished cork – a common feature in US vehicles which at the time were being imported in greater numbers.