The original recipe for was invented and developed by FG Garton a grocer from Nottingham. F.G. Garton's Sauce Manufacturing began to market HP Sauce in 1903. Garton came to call the sauce HP because he had heard that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it. Garton sold the recipe and HP brand for the sum of £150 and the settlement of some unpaid bills to Edwin Samson Moore.
HP Sauce became known as "Wilson's Gravy" in the 1960s and '70s after Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister who, it was alleged, used to cover his food with the sauce. The allegation was neither confirmed nor denied by Wilson.
The brand is now owned by Danone.