Fouad Serageddin, the octogenarian boss of the conservative New Wafd Party, served as interior minister in King Farouk's last government before the 1952 revolution.
Its founder, Leon Castro, a Jew, was also the spokesman of the largest Egyptian political party, the Wafd, related to the largest opposition party taking part in this week's demonstrations.
The symbol of the crescent embracing the cross was the banner of the 1919 revolution against British control of Egypt, and became the badge of the nationalist Wafd party which dominated Egyptian politics until the early 1950s.