James Horlicks 1844 – 1921 and William Horlicks 1846 – 1936 , the founders of the malted drink Horlicks, were advocates of homeopathy and James Horlicks, a homoeopathic pharmacist ,carefully developed this product be a complete nourishment formulae for infants and invalids.

Horlicks was a concentrated and easily digestible food drink, widely praised and recommended by homeopaths.The founders, James and William Horlicks, were born in 1844 and 1846 respectively at Ruardean in Gloucestershire. When they reached their late teens both men went to London, where James joined a homeopathic chemist in Bond Street and William a saddler in Lisle Street, where he became a fully-fledged mechanic.In 1869,William left for the US and worked for a year or two with a distant cousin in the quarrying business at Racine, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, James qualified as a pharmacist (also in 1869).

Before leaving England in 1873, he was working on a dried infant food prepared from malt and bran to mix with milk and water. James could not raise the necessary capital to market and produce a new drink himself in London and so left to join his brother in America.