Alexander Tom Cussons (14 July 1875 – 20 August 1951) was the Chairman of Cussons Sons & Co, the largest independent soap manufacturer in Britain and maker of the brand Cussons Imperial Leather and other personal care products. Cussons was born in Holbeck, Leeds, England to Thomas Tomlinson Cussons (1838–1927) and his wife Elizabeth Cussons (née Ashton, 1843–1905).

Tom Cussons was apprenticed in the town of Ossett. He then moved to Swinton, Salford with his parents. There Tom Cussons worked in partnership with Ernest Jonathan Lake in the firm of Lake, Cussons, and Company. The firm operated as a wholesale druggist until 25 January 1894 when the partnership was dissolved. Tom Cussons then continued in partnership with his father. The family partnership purchased a farm in Kersal in Manchester which was above an old bleach works at the foot of the hill. In 1907 the partnership bought this factory and began manufacturing soap, glass bottles and many other products.

On 31 October 1908 the business was incorporated and Tom Cussons became the first chairman. Under Tom Cussons the company grew. In 1917 Marks & Spencer penny bazaars began to stock Cussons products. In 1920 Cussons purchased an established perfumers named Piesse & Lubin based in London, which was eventually absorbed into the main business in Manchester and ceased to exist in the 1950s. In 1921 Cussons acquired Bayleys of Bond Street. In 1938 the firm began manufacturing the now flagship brand Imperial Leather. In 1947 Cussons Sons & Co became a public company. Cussons grew into a large multinational company, with sales and factories in many Commonwealth countries.

Tom Cussons established the company head office at 84 Brook Street, London in the district of Mayfair. Tom Cussons is best known for manufacturing Imperial Leather soap. However he also manufactured a number of soaps which have since been discontinued. These included Apple Blossom, Linden Blossom, Lilac Blossom and Blue Hyacinth.

Alexander Tom Cussons was the father of three children, with Emily Jane Kidd. The three children were Marjorie Cussons (1902–1983), Leslie Padison Cussons (1907–1963) and Alexander Stockton Cussons (1914–1986).

Marjorie Cussons, later Marjorie Goodwin, was an international hockey player, who played for England before joining Cussons as Marketing Director and developing the Imperial Leather brand throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s becoming President of the Cussons Group in the 1970s. Marjorie referred to herself and was widely known as 'The Mother of Imperial Leather'. Marjorie married Leslie Goodwin (a Manchester Soap Maker and former managing director of Cussons Sons and Company Ltd). They had two children, Hugh Cussons Goodwin (later Marketing Director of Cussons) and Natalie Jane Goodwin (a qualified concert pianist and later a leading female racing driver in the 1960s becoming British Women's champion three times and the only woman to race professionally at Monaco). Hugh attended Uppingham School and Natalie attended Roedean School.

Leslie Padison Cussons married Winsome Wheal. Leslie soon became the chairman of Cussons Soap from the early 1950s until his death in 1963. Leslie and Winsome had three children, Barry Cussons, who died at about the age of ten, Leslie Nicholas Cussons and Simon Hamish Cussons. Leslie and Simon both attended Oundle School.

Alexander Stockton Cussons was born on 30 December 1914. Schooled near Montreux, in Switzerland, he became fluent in French and German. Whilst he was at school, he played in a jazz band as the drummer. After joining the family firm in Manchester at Cussons Sons and Company limited, his father sent him out to South Africa to run the factory that his sister Marjorie and her husband Leslie Goodwin had founded before the war. Alex served in the South African army during the war. Whilst in South Africa, he met and married Wendy Grace Johnston (born 1 October 1925), on 25 February 1947, Their son, Jeremy Alexander Cussons was born on 2 September 1950 in South Africa, followed by another son, Richard Stockton Cussons (born 1 October 1957). On the death of Leslie (above), Cussons soap was led by Alexander Stockton Cussons, who became chairman from 1963 to 1968, when ill health forced him to retire and move away from the smog and pollution of Manchester to the healthier climate of South Africa. He made a full recovery there and became a director of several companies, as well as owning a beautiful farm in the Natal Midlands, where he farmed Hereford cattle. He became well known and well respected in the business community in Durban and the midlands, and died in 1986 after a debilitating illness that left him bed bound for the last 9 months of his life. Jeremy attended Marlborough school, and was a successful county tennis player during his teens, before he contracted poliomyelitis in 1968 in Germany, where he was treated at Cologne hospital for many months. He recovered and after a brief sojourn in South Africa with his parents, went farming in the Isle of Man. He married Elizabeth and had two children, Leo Alexander, and Angela. The marriage did not last, and he remarried Rebecca, and they had two children, Sebastian and Francesca. Leo currently owns a DIY shop in Port Erin. Angela lives in Oxfordshire. Sebastian is a successful London lawyer. Francesca owns "My Adorable Friend", a business selling natural products for pets. Richard Cussons married Suzanne in 1979 and they have had four children: Julie,(1983) who died at the age of two, Hazel (1985) who lives in Knutsford, Elizabeth (1988) who works in the banking sector in Germany, and Alexandra (1990) who is studying for her M.A. in Psychology. Richard is a committed Christian who studied for his BTh (hons) at Liverpool University, followed by his M.A. in Religion and Theology at Manchester University. He became a lay minister in the Church of England in 1997, and a Local preacher in the Methodist church in 2007, roles he holds jointly, being one of the first to do so after special permission was obtained from the Bishop of Chester following the Anglican Methodist Covenant of 2000. Richard is on the Readers council in the Diocese of Chester, and is District Tutor in the Stockport and Manchester District of the Methodist Church of Great Britain. He has been in retail, when he was Chairman of the Knutsford Chamber of Commerce in the 1990s, and subsequently retrained to be a teacher of Theology and Philosophy at Secondary schools and a VIth form college in Cheshire, a successful change of career move, as he achieved outstanding results for his students. Richard currently runs a Property Management business in Cheshire. Suzanne is a highly qualified Psychotherapist (BSc, BA, MA) with a private practice in Cheshire.