William Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke

For the US politician, see William Henry Wills (politician).

File:Sir William Wills.jpg

Sir William Wills

File:William Henry Wills, Vanity Fair, 1893-11-23.jpg

"Birdseye". Caricature by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1893.

William Henry Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke (1 September 1830 – 29 January 1911), known as Sir William Wills, Bt, between 1893 and 1906, was a British businessman, philanthropist and Liberal politician.

Background

Wills was the son of William Day Wills and a cousin of Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet, and Henry Overton Wills III, first chancellor of the University of Bristol.

Business career

A member of the wealthy Bristol tobacco importing Wills family, Wills joined the family firm at an early age. In 1858 he went into partnership with two of his cousins to form W. D. & H. O. Wills, which later became the Imperial Tobacco Company, of which he became the first chairman. Recognised as the head of the tobacco industry in Britain, he was also Chairman of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce. In 1904 he presented the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery to the people of Bristol.

Political career

Wills was a member of the Bristol City Council from 1862 to 1880 and sheriff of the City from 1877 to 1878. He also sat as Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for two separate five-year periods: for Coventry from 1880 to 1885, and for Bristol East from 1895 to 1900. He served as High Sheriff of Somerset in 1905.

He was made a Baronet, of Coombe Lodge in the Parish of Blagdon in the County of Somerset, in 1893 and raised to the peerage as Baron Winterstoke, of Blagdon in the County of Somerset, in 1906. He took his title from the ancient hundred of Winterstoke, in which his home at Blagdon lay.

Personal life

Lord Winterstoke died without heirs in January 1911, aged 80, when the baronetcy and barony became extinct. His estate was worth £2,548,209, which is about £250 million taking into account inflation .A portrait of Lord Winterstoke hangs in the JCR of Mansfield College, Oxford.

See also

• Royal West of England Academy

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Eaton Henry Mather Jackson	Member of Parliament for Coventry 1880–1885 With: Sir Henry Mather Jackson 1880–1881 Henry Eaton 1881–1885	Succeeded by Henry Eaton
Preceded by Sir Joseph Dodge Weston	Member of Parliament for Bristol East 1895–1900	Succeeded by Charles Hobhouse
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Winterstoke 1906–1910	Extinct