WILLIAM HESKETH LEVER
Name: William Lever
Born: 19 September 1851
Died: 7 May 1925
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (19 September 1851 - 7 May 1925)
was an English Industrialist, philanthropist and colonialist.
William Lever was born in 1851, in Bolton, Lancashire, England, and educated at
the Bolton Church Institute. After training with his father's wholesale grocery
business, in 1886 he established a soap manufacturing company called Lever
Brothers (now part of Unilever) with his brother James. It was one of the first
companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and in conjunction with Lever's
business acumen and marketing practices, produced a great fortune. James Lever
never took a major part in running the business. A recent biography by Adam
Macqueen suggests that James suffered from diabetes throughout his life, and
that perhaps his symptoms (prior to the discovery of insulin and effective
treatment of the condition) were mistaken for mental instability
From 1888, Lever began to put his philanthropic principles into practice through
the construction of Port Sunlight, a model community designed to house and
support the workers of Lever Brothers, who already enjoyed generous wages and
innovative benefits. Lever's philanthropy had definite paternalistic overtones,
and life in Port Sunlight included intrusive rules and implied mandatory
participation in activities. With accommodation tied to employment, a worker
losing his or her job could be almost simultaneously evicted. Nonetheless,
conditions, pay, hours, and benefits far exceeded those prevailing in similar
industries.
In the early 1900s, Lever was using palm oil produced in the British West
African colonies. When he found difficulties in obtaining more palm plantation
concessions, he started looking elsewhere in other colonies. In 1911, Lever
visited the Belgian Congo to take advantage of cheap labour and palm oil
concessions in that country. Lever's attitudes towards the Congolese were
paternalistic and racist, and his negotiations with the Belgian coloniser to
enforce the system known as travail forcé (forced labor) are well documented. As
such, he participated in this system of formalised labour. The archives show a
record of Belgian administrators, missionaries and doctors protesting against
the practices at the Lever plantations. Formal parliamentary investigations were
called for by members of the Belgian Socialist Party, but despite their work,
the practise of forced labor continued until independence in 1960.
Lever lived in the Rivington area of Bolton for many years. In 1913, his house
there was destroyed by suffragette Edith Rigby — ironically, as he was in favour
women's suffrage. He had a large mansion created to replace this original home,
and turned a large portion of the grounds over to the town of Bolton as a public
park, including a small zoo stocked with emu, yaks, zebra, wallabies and a lion
cub. His own Japanese-style garden, based on the design of the willow-patterned
plate, included a lake complete with its own flock of flamingos. Each of his
houses was equipped with an open-air bedroom, in which, following his wife
Elizabeth's death in 1913, he frequently slept with only a small glass canopy to
protect his bed from the elements.
Lever was a lifelong supporter of William Gladstone and the Liberal cause, and
was often called upon to contest elections for the Liberal Party. He served as
Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wirral constituency between 1906 and 1909,
using his maiden speech to the House of Commons to urge Henry Campbell-Bannerman's
government to introduce a national old age pension, as he already provided for
his own workers. He was High Sheriff of Lancaster in 1917 and Mayor of Bolton in
1918.
Lord Leverhulme is remembered as a philanthropist. Port Sunlight is now the home
of the Lady Lever Art Gallery; he endowed a school of tropical medicine at
Liverpool University; he gifted Lancaster House in London to the British nation;
and endowed the Leverhulme Trust. The garden of his former London residence 'The
Hill' in Hampstead, is open to the public. He was a major benefactor in his home
town of Bolton. He bought Hall i' th' Wood (Samuel Crompton's birthplace) and
donated it to the town. He made many donations to Bolton School and wanted to
completely redesign Bolton town centre but his offer was not accepted by the
council.
In 1918, Lever bought the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, with the intention of making
Stornoway an industrial town and building a fish cannery, his intentions were
received badly by the islanders. He gave Lewis to its people in 1923, and
concentrated his efforts on the southern portion of the island, known as Harris.
He was created Baron Leverhulme on 21 June 1917, and Viscount Leverhulme on 27
November 1922 - the hulme section of the title being in honour of his wife,
Elizabeth Hulme. Upon his death, of pneumonia, in 1925, the Leverhulme
viscountcy passed to his son William Hulme Lever. It became extinct on the death
of the third viscount, Philip William Bryce Lever, in 2000.
Name: William Lever
Born: 19 September 1851
Died: 7 May 1925
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (19 September 1851 - 7 May 1925)
was an English Industrialist, philanthropist and colonialist.
William Lever was born in 1851, in Bolton, Lancashire, England, and educated at
the Bolton Church Institute. After training with his father's wholesale grocery
business, in 1886 he established a soap manufacturing company called Lever
Brothers (now part of Unilever) with his brother James. It was one of the first
companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and in conjunction with Lever's
business acumen and marketing practices, produced a great fortune. James Lever
never took a major part in running the business. A recent biography by Adam
Macqueen suggests that James suffered from diabetes throughout his life, and
that perhaps his symptoms (prior to the discovery of insulin and effective
treatment of the condition) were mistaken for mental instability
From 1888, Lever began to put his philanthropic principles into practice through
the construction of Port Sunlight, a model community designed to house and
support the workers of Lever Brothers, who already enjoyed generous wages and
innovative benefits. Lever's philanthropy had definite paternalistic overtones,
and life in Port Sunlight included intrusive rules and implied mandatory
participation in activities. With accommodation tied to employment, a worker
losing his or her job could be almost simultaneously evicted. Nonetheless,
conditions, pay, hours, and benefits far exceeded those prevailing in similar
industries.
In the early 1900s, Lever was using palm oil produced in the British West
African colonies. When he found difficulties in obtaining more palm plantation
concessions, he started looking elsewhere in other colonies. In 1911, Lever
visited the Belgian Congo to take advantage of cheap labour and palm oil
concessions in that country. Lever's attitudes towards the Congolese were
paternalistic and racist, and his negotiations with the Belgian coloniser to
enforce the system known as travail forcé (forced labor) are well documented. As
such, he participated in this system of formalised labour. The archives show a
record of Belgian administrators, missionaries and doctors protesting against
the practices at the Lever plantations. Formal parliamentary investigations were
called for by members of the Belgian Socialist Party, but despite their work,
the practise of forced labor continued until independence in 1960.
Lever lived in the Rivington area of Bolton for many years. In 1913, his house
there was destroyed by suffragette Edith Rigby — ironically, as he was in favour
women's suffrage. He had a large mansion created to replace this original home,
and turned a large portion of the grounds over to the town of Bolton as a public
park, including a small zoo stocked with emu, yaks, zebra, wallabies and a lion
cub. His own Japanese-style garden, based on the design of the willow-patterned
plate, included a lake complete with its own flock of flamingos. Each of his
houses was equipped with an open-air bedroom, in which, following his wife
Elizabeth's death in 1913, he frequently slept with only a small glass canopy to
protect his bed from the elements.
Lever was a lifelong supporter of William Gladstone and the Liberal cause, and
was often called upon to contest elections for the Liberal Party. He served as
Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wirral constituency between 1906 and 1909,
using his maiden speech to the House of Commons to urge Henry Campbell-Bannerman's
government to introduce a national old age pension, as he already provided for
his own workers. He was High Sheriff of Lancaster in 1917 and Mayor of Bolton in
1918.
Lord Leverhulme is remembered as a philanthropist. Port Sunlight is now the home
of the Lady Lever Art Gallery; he endowed a school of tropical medicine at
Liverpool University; he gifted Lancaster House in London to the British nation;
and endowed the Leverhulme Trust. The garden of his former London residence 'The
Hill' in Hampstead, is open to the public. He was a major benefactor in his home
town of Bolton. He bought Hall i' th' Wood (Samuel Crompton's birthplace) and
donated it to the town. He made many donations to Bolton School and wanted to
completely redesign Bolton town centre but his offer was not accepted by the
council.
In 1918, Lever bought the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, with the intention of making
Stornoway an industrial town and building a fish cannery, his intentions were
received badly by the islanders. He gave Lewis to its people in 1923, and
concentrated his efforts on the southern portion of the island, known as Harris.
He was created Baron Leverhulme on 21 June 1917, and Viscount Leverhulme on 27
November 1922 - the hulme section of the title being in honour of his wife,
Elizabeth Hulme. Upon his death, of pneumonia, in 1925, the Leverhulme
viscountcy passed to his son William Hulme Lever. It became extinct on the death
of the third viscount, Philip William Bryce Lever, in 2000.