William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme ,
[ (, ; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English ]industrialist
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
, philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
, and politician. Having been educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools until he was fifteen; a somewhat privileged education for that time, he started work at his father's wholesale grocery business in Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
. Following an apprenticeship and a series of appointments in the family business, which he successfully expanded, he began manufacturing Sunlight Soap
Sunlight is a brand of laundry soap, laundry detergent and dishwashing detergent manufactured and marketed around the world by Unilever, except in the United States and Canada, where it has been owned by Sun Products (now Henkel Corporation) ...
, building a substantial business empire with many well-known brands such as Lux
The lux (symbol: lx) is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by the ...
and Lifebuoy
A lifebuoy is a life-saving buoy designed to be thrown to a person in water, to provide buoyancy and prevent drowning. Some modern lifebuoys are fitted with one or more seawater-activated lights, to aid rescue at night.
Other names
Other nam ...
. In 1886, together with his brother, James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
, he established Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...
, which was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and which is now part of the British multinational Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
. In politics, Lever briefly sat as a Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
MP for Wirral and later, as Lord Leverhulme, in the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
as a Peer. He was an advocate for expansion of the British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, particularly in Africa and Asia, which supplied palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
, a key ingredient in Lever's product line. His firm had become associated with activities in the Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
by 1911.
An aspiring patron of the arts, Lever began collecting artworks in 1893 when he bought a painting by Edmund Leighton
Edmund Blair Leighton (21 September 18521 September 1922) was an English painter of historical genre scenes, specialising in Regency and medieval subjects. His art is associated with the pre-Raphaelite movement of the mid-to-late nineteenth an ...
. Lever's rival in the soap industry, A & F Pears
A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...
, had taken the lead in using art for marketing by buying paintings such as "Bubbles
Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to:
Common uses
* Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid
** Soap bubble
* Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fundame ...
" by John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
to promote its products. Lever's response was to acquire similarly illustrative works, and he later bought 'The New Frock' by William Powell Frith
William Powell Frith (9 January 1819 – 2 November 1909) was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting ''The Sleep ...
to promote the Sunlight soap
Sunlight is a brand of laundry soap, laundry detergent and dishwashing detergent manufactured and marketed around the world by Unilever, except in the United States and Canada, where it has been owned by Sun Products (now Henkel Corporation) ...
brand. In 1922 he founded the Lady Lever Art Gallery
The Lady Lever Art Gallery is a museum founded and built by the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme and opened in 1922. The Lady Lever Art Gallery is set in the garden village of Port Sunlight, on the Wirral ...
at Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...
in Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
which he dedicated to his late wife Elizabeth.
Biography
William Lever was born on 19 September 1851 at 16 Wood Street, Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
, Lancashire, England. He was the eldest son and the seventh child born to James Lever (1809–1897), a grocer, and Eliza Hesketh, daughter of a cotton mill manager. From age six to age nine William attended a small private school run by the Misses Aspinwall in a house on Wood Street, not far from the Lever family home. At the age of nine he was sent to another of Bolton's private schools before finishing his formal education at Bolton Church Institute from 1864 to 1867. Not a particularly bright scholar, he was nevertheless keen to acquire academic learning. His mother wanted him to enter the learned professions, ostensibly medicine, and William himself was very interested in becoming an architect. His father, however, had other, somewhat less erudite plans for his eldest son and thus, not long after his fifteenth birthday, he started work in the family grocery business. By then, the Lever family had moved from Wood Street to a larger house adjacent to the grocery business. In the celebrated Victorian manner, the boss's son was, initially at least, shown no preferential treatment, being required to sweep the floor and tidy up before the staff arrived. Other tasks included various practical assignments more to do with the fundamentals of the wholesale grocery trade, almost certainly designed to prepare the youth for management in later years. His remuneration was "a shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
a week all found" which meant that his board and lodgings were provided, making the financial aspect of the contract more-or-less pocket money.[
At some stage, William was moved to the administration department where he learned about and subsequently reorganised the firm's accounting and bookkeeping systems. Perhaps in order to escape the shackles of his father's close supervision, he eventually petitioned to take the place of a retiring sales representative; in those days, being a "rep" meant a great deal of travelling by horse and carriage and spending nights away from home, as well as a measure of independence and some leeway in making decisions and brokering deals with the canny retailers on his route.
The Lever family were ]Congregationalists
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
and James Lever, a teetotaller and a non-smoker, applied its principles in his business life as well as in his personal life. In accordance with nonconformist tenets, the Lever family held frequent bible readings at home, and were regular worshipers at the local chapel. Thus, William's circle of friends tended to comprise children of similar backgrounds and beliefs. Among these was Elizabeth Ellen Hulme (Dec 1850 – 24 July 1913) whose family also resided on Wood Street. In the tradition of the nineteenth-century well-to-do middle classes, William paid court to Elizabeth over several years and, when the financial circumstances allowed, he formally proposed marriage. On 17 April 1874, after a two-year engagement, they were married at the Church of St Andrew and St George (then Congregational, now United Reformed
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
Origins and history
The United Reformed Church resulte ...
) on St Georges Road, Bolton.[
In 1879 the Lever family business acquired a failing wholesale grocer in Wigan, affording young William an opportunity to prove his ability as a quasi-autonomous administrator. The expanded activity necessitated a search for new suppliers, taking William to Ireland, France and other parts of Europe, appointing local agents to safeguard the firm's interests. At this time, his flair for advertising and branding began to emerge as he successfully differentiated the Lever brand from generic commodities. By the end of 1879, the business’ prospects were good enough to convince William and Elizabeth to invest in a new home in Bolton and by 1881 the expanding Wigan business warranted the commissioning of new premises; Lever and Company was expanding steadily.
]
Freemasonry
In 1902, when he became the first initiate of a lodge bearing his name (William Hesketh Lever Lodge No. 2916 in Port Sunlight) Lever involved himself in Freemasonry
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. In 1907 he became Worshipful Master, going on to found many Lodges and hold various offices at national level. In 1907, while sitting as an MP, he was a founder of the Phoenix Lodge 3236, and in May 1912 he founded St. Hilary Lodge No. 3591. He then became Past Pro-Grand Warden (P.P.G.W) and Immediate Past Master (I.P.M). In 1919, he was appointed Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England. He was Provincial Senior Grand Warden of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Cheshire, and founded many other Lodges.
Sunlight Soap
In 1884, having developed Lever and Company to a point where it was virtually self-governing, William resolved to capture a large share of the international soap trade. In essence, he planned to manufacture and market a range of high quality, price differentiated products, using a strategy based upon his experiences with butter and other commodity products. Thus, instead of selling soap by weight, he had it cut into small, manageable tablets which were individually wrapped. The 1875 Trade Mark Registration Act protected trade names from counterfeiters and imitators, and this opened the way for brand name recognition and consumer loyalty. Within 12 months, Lever had registered a series of trade marks, among them Sunlight
Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when t ...
, a house style that was later applied to a range of household soaps.
The Lever soap campaign began with a range of Sunlight branded soaps differentiated mainly by colour: Pale, Mottled and Brown, with a fourth variant presented as a product that was especially formulated for washing clothes. This 'Sunlight Self-Washer Soap' was widely advertised using billboards and posters located at public places throughout northern England. But at that time, Lever had to rely for supplies on "soap-boilers" – independent firms that specialised in producing soap to order – who were expected to work to his proprietary formula. The reliability of these suppliers was however apparently questionable, as variations in the end product gave rise to complaints about the effectiveness, and even the smell, of Self-Washer.
After much consideration, William began to consider the possibility of taking control of the manufacture, and thus the quality, of Sunlight soaps. He had discovered a small producer based in Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
that badly needed to increase its output in order to become profitable and although Lever could probably have solved its problem though placing orders for most of his soap, he clearly wanted complete control. Having persuaded his father and younger brother that it would be a beneficial strategy, William raised sufficient capital for the takeover to take place and in August 1885 Lever and Company, wholesale grocers, added soap manufacturing to its range of activities.
The success of the Sunlight brand, especially after Lever assumed full responsibility for the product's quality, was exceptional; so much so that by the end of 1887 it had become impossible to squeeze any more capacity from the Warrington plant. Having failed to either extend the site or find more space in the areas, Lever eventually decided to move the whole manufacturing facility to an green-field site near Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
.
Port Sunlight
Lever was the founder of 'Port Sunlight'.[ In 1887, Lever bought of land on the Wirral in ]Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
between the River Mersey
The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...
and the railway line at Bebington
Bebington () is a town and unparished area within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it lies south of Liverpool, close to the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula. Ne ...
. This site became Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...
where he built his works and a model village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...
to house its employees. From 1888, Port Sunlight village offered decent living conditions in the belief that good housing would ensure a healthy and happy workforce. The community was designed to house and support the workers. Life in Port Sunlight included intrusive rules and implied mandatory participation in activities. The tied cottage
In the United Kingdom, a tied cottage is typically a dwelling owned by an employer that is rented to an employee: if the employee leaves their job they may have to vacate the property; in this way the employee is tied to their employer. While the ...
s meant that a worker losing his or her job could be almost simultaneously evicted.
In some matters, Lever was keen to allow the residents of Port Sunlight a degree of democratic control, and this seems to have led to a common conviction that he was in favour of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
: a belief that possibly stems from a situation arising in connection the Bridge Inn, a Port Sunlight temperance "pub" that was opened in 1900. Lever was a lifelong teetotaller, and he naturally assumed that the Bridge would be "dry". Within two years of its opening, however, representations were made to change its status to a licensed house. Lever promptly announced that he would not impose his own views, and that the issue would be decided by a referendum; insisting somewhat unconventionally for that time that women would take part. With the added proviso that the Bridge would only become a true British "pub" if a supermajority of 75% was in favour, Lever probably felt confident that the outcome would support his abstemious sentiments, but in the event more than 80% voted for an alcohol licence and even though some people petitioned Lever urging him to use his absolute authority in Port Sunlight and ignore the referendum, he refused to do so.
In reality, workers' social lives were policed from the head office, and some of Lever's employees clearly resented his paternalism. However well intentioned, the power it afforded the company, even though it was rarely exercised, was viewed as an attack on workers' liberty and human rights. Although many such people preferred to find their own accommodation, there were others who, for whatever reason, were never given an opportunity to reside in Port Sunlight. Perhaps Lever's observations on this matter are revealing:
Advertising
It is clear that skilful advertising and favourable publicity were major positive factors in the early success of Lever's enterprise. Much of the Sunlight brand "message" focussed on the alleviation of drudgery in the lives of working class housewives, targeted no doubt because of the increased spending power and improved education of that large section of the British population, the skilled workers. For inspiration, Lever turned to the United States and he seems to have had no reservations in adopting American methods in Above The Line (ATL) and Below The Line (BTL) advertising. One subtle proposition introduced from America was designed to persuade women that the toil of housework was responsible for an accelerated aging process, and that Sunlight Soap offered a form of liberation. This, and other similarly cautionary messages, were posted on hoardings and on the sides of buses together with pictures that underscored the slogans. Promotional literature, in the form of instructions about the best ways of using the company's products, was widely distributed, as well as allegorical accounts of their successful adoption by stylish – and totally fictional – upper-class ladies.
One of the more remarkable Below The Line projects was the Sunlight Year Book, which was a type of almanac first introduced in 1895. These were quite substantial (the 1899 version had 480 pages) publications which evolved into a hard-backed and 'Profusely Illustrated' volume, described by the publisher as
These books were distributed widely, and many were given to the head teachers of schools, causing protests from members of the Soap Makers Association
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are used a ...
. Other schemes adopted from the USA included competitions with cash prizes, coupons and tokens included in soap packaging, and sponsorship of worthy causes such as a lifeboat named Sunlight. The success of these schemes soon led to their adoption by Lever's competitors, although they eventually became difficult to sustain as raw material costs began to increase during the first decade of the twentieth-century, inducing most soap makers to phase them out.
Lever's desire to directly influence the consumer led to the employment of "District Agents" whose tasks involved engaging directly with members of the public in order to advance the merits of the company's products, as well as to act as undercover agents who reported on anything they observed that could be useful to Port Sunlight. The success of this aspect of Lever's marketing strategy led to the first overseas manufacturing plant being established in Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. 'Savonneries Helvetia' was the inspiration of the somewhat charismatic François-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke
François-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke was a Swiss cinematographer, philanthropist and entrepreneur. He is credited with having been the first cinematographer of Switzerland.
Early life and education
He was born on 4 January 1848 in Morges into a fam ...
, Lever's District Agent in Switzerland who used the fledgling cinema industry as an advertising tool. The success of this venture led, by 1900, to the establishment of factories in Switzerland, Germany, Canada, the United States, Holland, and Australia with several others planned, while the Sunlight brand had been strengthened by the addition of Lifebuoy, Vim and Lux.
Soap combine
By 1905, many of the raw materials used in the manufacture of soap were being used by makers of margarine
Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was orig ...
and other new products, and in early 1906 it was clear that this increased demand was not temporary and prices rose sharply. Concern in the soap-making industry was widespread and in some cases acute, competition became fierce, leading to increases in advertising expenses which served only to exacerbate an already critical situation. Lever himself considered, and then rejected, some rather drastic alterations to the Sunlight formula; eventually deciding on reducing the weight of the standard bar. In July 1906 he was asked to attend a meeting in Liverpool, called by a group of soap-makers based in the north of England. The result was an accord to put in motion changes that would effectively cartelise the industry by stifling competition and controlling prices to the consumer.
Lever attempted to rationalise the formation of the Soap Trust by claiming that the industry would become more efficient, thus making cost savings that could be passed on to the consumer; assertions that could never be realised. Financial manoeuvres made by Lever were designed to maximise the Lever Brothers position within the cartel included takeovers and share issues, but as more people became aware of their plans, it was inevitable that information would be leaked to the press. Nevertheless, retrenchments were set in motion, including the cancellation of several substantial press advertising campaigns. By October, several newspapers were publishing articles about the Soap Trust and some began to represent Lever as the leading character in an infamous conspiracy.
Headlines in the ''Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'', ''Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'', and ''Evening News Evening News may refer to:
Television news
*''CBS Evening News'', an American news broadcast
*''ITV Evening News'', a UK news broadcast
*'' JNN Evening News'', a Japanese news broadcast
*''Evening News'', an alternate name for '' News Hour'' in so ...
'' proclaimed: 'Soap Trust Arithmetic – How 15 ounces make a pound', 'Dismissal of employees begins', and 'Trust Soap Already Dearer'. Other allegations included claims that the Trust was trying to control the available supplies of raw materials and that it was preparing to use 'unsavoury substances' in its soaps. Port Sunlight, parodied as 'Port Moonshine', was portrayed as a sweatshop, reports by disgruntled retailers were given prominent positions and readers were urged to buy products made by non-Trust manufacturers.
Lord Northcliffe
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...
took a personal interest in the anti-Soap Trust campaign. While extending assurances of "the strictest impartiality" to Lever, Northcliffe's close friendship with Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
revealed his support for the American's activities as a 'trust-buster'. Roosevelt's investigations of dishonest dealings among many American companies had been fully reported in Britain, eliciting a pious chorus of disapproval and claims that any similar wrongdoing by British firms would be unimaginable but Northcliffe, pointing to the existence of a British Tobacco Trust, was not convinced. He set in motion a campaign of investigative journalism, some of which seems to have verged upon persecution; the clear objective of which was to smash Lever's soap combine.
The campaign had a surprisingly rapid and strikingly negative impact on the member companies, particularly on Lever Brothers’ businesses. By November 1906, Lever sales had fallen by sixty percent compared with the previous year and Lever Brothers shares had lost around twenty-five percent of their value; other members of the Combine experienced similarly devastating declines. Such conditions inevitably led to a reassessment of the position and, following a meeting of all firms involved in the alliance, but without the wholehearted approval of Lever himself, a decision was made to bring the organization to an end. Most of the members of the failed cartel found their reputations seriously tarnished, and none escaped financial damage; Lever estimated his losses at "considerably over half a million". For Northcliffe, this was clearly a victory of liberty over iniquity, a view reflected in the ''Daily Mail''s headline, 'Public Opinion Smashed the Soap Trust'.
''Daily Mail'' libel case
Perhaps naturally, Lever felt that the failure of the soap combine was the result of animosity and resentment directed at him personally, rather than as a consequence of its members’ dishonesty. Having sought several opinions on the authority of his suit, he retained Sir Edward Carson
Edward Henry Carson, 1st Baron Carson, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC, Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire) (9 February 1854 – 22 October 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Unionism in Ireland, Irish u ...
and two juniors, one of whom was Frederick Edwin Smith, later Lord Birkenhead
Earl of Birkenhead was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 for the noted lawyer and Conservative politician F. E. Smith, 1st Viscount Birkenhead. He was Solicitor-General in 1915, Attorney-General from 1915 to ...
. For the defendants, Rufus Isaacs, later Marquess of Reading
Marquess of Reading is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1926 for Rufus Isaacs, who had been Member of Parliament for Reading between 1904 and 1913, before serving as Viceroy of India and Lord Chief Justice of Engla ...
and Viceroy of India
The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...
, assisted by another K.C. and two juniors, acted for Associated Newspapers Ltd
DMG Media (stylised in lowercase) is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at Northcliffe House in ...
. Lever's legal team were in no doubt of the outcome; as F.E. Smith reportedly observed 'There is no answer to this action for libel and the damages must be enormous.' On 15 July 1907 the case came up at Liverpool before Mr Justice Lawrence.
The circumstances in which the trial took place were unusual in that, while Lever's legal team were accommodated at Thornton Manor
Thornton Manor is a large manor house in the village of Thornton Hough, Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* Listed building#England and Wales, l ...
, Lord Northcliffe, the principal witness for the defence, was overseas and, according to Jolly, "had no intention of returning within range of any writ server while the case was on." It seems clear, therefore, that Northcliffe was in the wrong and, moreover, he knew that he would most probably lose the case: he reportedly offered Lever a public apology shortly before the start of the trial. For the plaintiff, Carson accused Associated Newspapers
DMG Media (stylised in lowercase) is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at Northcliffe House in ...
of conducting a malicious campaign ‘with the object of smashing up Lever Brothers.’ Speaking for more than five hours, he listed a number of complaints and asked the jury to award punitive damages. He then called Lever as his first witness, inviting the leader of the defence team to "cross-examine him to his heart's content, and, when his time comes, I hope he will be able to follow my example and do the same, and call as his first witness his own client, Lord Northcliffe..."
Such was the impression of Lever's demeanour and testimony on the defence team that, as soon as the court was assembled on the following day, they capitulated completely. They also stated that, on behalf of their clients that they wished to retract completely "every imputation made upon Mr Lever's honour and integrity" and express their deepest regrets for having made such malicious attacks upon him. There followed a scene on the floor of the court wherein the legal teams literally haggled over the size of the financial settlement. In the end, the sum agreed to was £50,000, plus around £40,000 which was eventually awarded from individual newspapers. This victory was celebrated with a day's holiday at Port Sunlight, where Lever blithely addressed the employees and other spectators who cheered and applauded their hero.
Lever Brothers had indeed been seriously damaged by the press, as well as by rises in the costs of raw materials, but Lever hesitated to use the court awarded cash to bolster the company. Instead, he presented it all to Liverpool University
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
, bestowing significant sums to the faculties of Town Planning, Tropical Medicine, and Russian Studies, while making sure that an enduring record of the litigation was ensconced in the University library.
Africa
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 1911, Lever signed a treaty with the Belgian Government to gain access to the palm oil of the Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
, and opened his operation under a subsidiary of the Lever consortium named ''Huileries du Congo Belge
Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB) was a subsidiary of the soap manufacturing company Lever Brothers, created by William Hesketh Lever, which ran plantations in the Congo for the production of palm oil, using forced labour. It was established in 191 ...
'' (HCB) after buying a concession for of forest for palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
production. The main coordinating base was established at Leverville
Lusanga (formerly Leverville) is a town in Kwilu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is at the confluence of the Kwenge and Kwilu rivers.
The town is served by a small airport (IATA Code: LUS).
In the colonial era the town was ...
in what was then the district of Kwango, later part of the Province of Léopoldville.
The company town of Leverville was a project born out of the shared desire of the Belgian Government and of Lever Brothers to build a ‘moral’ form of capitalism in Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...
. For Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, Lever Brothers was an ideal partner, a company hailed for the social policies it had put in place in Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
. For Lever, HCB was expected to become the crowning achievement of his own brand of “moral capitalism”. A few months before his death, Lord Leverhulme, as he then was, wrote in a private letter that the ''Huileries'' were "a business like none other we have. Perhaps Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...
comes nearest to it in social work". By 1923, a Lever soap factory was built there, and by 1924 SAVCO (''Savonneries Congolaises'') was established.
Lever's attitudes towards the Congolese were paternalistic and his views were much more progressive than most industrialists of the time. Malcolm Hardman writes that "Lever observed and respected the intelligence and integrity of the Congolese he was allowed to meet". Sir
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
William Lever, Baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
, as he had become in December 1911, firmly believed that paid labour alongside the schools, hospitals and rations his company promised to provide would attract workers. However, "the harshness and danger of the labour demanded from them, living in camps away from their homes, as well as the poor remuneration HCB offered, failed to interest them."
Failing to find sufficient voluntary workers, HCB turned to the Belgian colonial authorities, a brutal regime notorious for their use of a system of ''travail forcé'' (forced labour
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
). The Belgians were "grateful to have a partnership with an enlightened entrepreneur to help salvage their battered reputation" and it allowed Lever to recruit the Congolese workforce he needed. Leverhulme's participation in this system of formalised labour has been documented by Jules Marchal
Jules Marchal (1924 - 21 June 2003) was a Belgian diplomat and historian, who wrote extensively on the history of colonial exploitation in the Belgian Congo. Originally writing in Dutch, under the pseudonym A. M. Delathuy, he later published stud ...
, who contends that, "Leverhulme set up a private kingdom reliant on the horrific Belgian system of forced labour, a program that reduced the population of Congo by half and accounted for more deaths than the Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
holocaust". The archives show a record of Belgian administrators, missionaries and doctors protesting against the practices at the Lever plantations. Formal parliamentary investigations by the Belgian Parliament
The Federal Parliament is the bicameral parliament of Belgium. It consists of the Chamber of Representatives (Dutch: , french: Chambre des Représentants, german: Abgeordnetenkammer) and the Senate (Dutch: , french: Sénat, german: Senat). It s ...
were called for by members of the Belgian Socialist Party nl, Belgische Socialistische Partij
, logo = Logo of the Belgian Socialist Party.png
, caption = The fist and rose emblem used by the party from 1973.
, leader1_title = President
, leader1_name = Achille Van Acker (first)André Cools (last)
...
.
The company's former Congo plantations today operate under the control of Feronia Inc Feronia may mean:
* Feronia (mythology), a goddess of fertility in Roman and Etruscan mythology
* ''Feronia'' (plant), a genus of plants
* Feronia Inc., a plantations company operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Feronia (Sardinia) ...
, employing approximately 4,000 people, acquired by the firm in 2009.
Lewis & Harris
In May 1918, by then in semi-retirement, Baron Leverhulme
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...
, as he was now, bought the Isle of Lewis
The Isle of Lewis ( gd, Eilean Leòdhais) or simply Lewis ( gd, Leòdhas, ) is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as ...
for £167,000 (). And in late 1919 he bought the estate of South Harris
Harris ( gd, Na Hearadh, ) is the southern and more mountainous part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Although not an island itself, Harris is often referred to in opposition to the ''Isle of Lewis'' as t ...
for £36,000; both in the Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...
, Scotland. His plans for their future prosperity centred upon the application of modern science and his own business skills in establishing a large and thriving fishing industry. Although Stornoway
Stornoway (; gd, Steòrnabhagh; sco, Stornowa) is the main town of the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.
The town's population is around 6,953, making it by far the largest town in the Outer Hebrides, as well a ...
had a good harbour, there were many disadvantages to Lord Leverhulme's plans for the port. Its remoteness led to additional transport costs for ice, fuel, packaging, and anything else that had to be imported, as well as for the fish products, almost all of which was sold on the Scottish mainland. The place itself was, for various reasons, unpopular with sailors, and the local population's strict Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
observance of the Sabbath had a negative effect on fishing operations, while catches of varieties of fish other than herring were unfeasibly small.
Lord Leverhulme intended that the port should be improved and enlarged to attract landings of fish from visiting vessels to supplement catches made by local boats and his own fleet of modern drifters and trawlers. There would be an ice-making factory, and cargo vessels with refrigerated holds to take the fresh fish to a depot on the British mainland at Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...
, Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, which was well placed to serve the industrial towns of the North of England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
. Leverhulme also expanded the herring-curing capacity and enlarged the fish processing facilities with the installation of a canning factory, and a plant to make fish-cakes, fish-paste, glue, animal feed, and fertiliser, with similar equipment being established at Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...
.
Vertical Integration
In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...
was apparently one of Leverhulme's main strategies for the island fisheries venture, and to this end he acquired retail fishmonger's shops in most of the UK's larger towns and cities: all were modernised and refitted and their previous proprietors were installed as managers. This aspect of Lever's Hebridean venture was named Mac Fisheries
Mac Fisheries was a branded United Kingdom retail chain of fishmongers, founded by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, the co-founder with his brother of Lever Brothers, which later merged to become Unilever.
Background
Isle of Lewis
In hi ...
; the fleet of fishing vessels the MacLine Company. Mac Fisheries was a success and it grew rapidly until there were over four hundred shops all purchasing fish from many different wholesale suppliers. Other food industry enterprises were acquired including Wall's, a manufacturer of ice-cream and sausages, and various companies specialising in different segments of the fish business, as well as several fishing fleet owners and operators. Although these developments brought tangible benefits to the people of Lewis, Leverhulme's plans did not suit everyone, and this anomaly created severe obstacles for his ambitious plans for the Western Isles.
Typically, Leverhulme's business strategies were comprehensive and meticulously set out. His plans for the island called for a reliable workforce, but although the inhabitants of Stornoway were generally well educated and hard working, they were for the most part regularly employed and well paid. The largely Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
-speaking crofters
A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural area ...
, on the other hand, were mainly subsistence farmers and many of them were squatters; and it was this section of the population that Leverhulme hoped to develop and recruit. The crofters were poor, but they were used to an independent life style that was both long established and deeply ingrained in their psyche. Nevertheless, Leverhulme planned to entice them into becoming carbon copies of his Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
artisans by offering them an attractive alternative to their meagre smallholdings. He did not actively oppose the crofter's way of life, but neither did he support it as some thought he, as their patron, ought to have done. When the crofters learned about the money that was being expended on other projects, they began to resent his lack of support for them.
Leverhulme did his utmost to woo the population of Lewis and to make himself – as well as his schemes – popular among all the islanders. This seems to have worked to some extent, but there were other sceptics whose voices were heard in government circles. Robert Munro, the Secretary of State for Scotland
The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the Unit ...
, and Donald Murray, the MP for the Western Isles
The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coas ...
, as well as a number of supporting characters including most of the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
, were anxious to redress past oppression of the Highlanders who had so recently served with outstanding bravery in the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
The Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
had empowered the Scottish Secretary, on behalf of His Majesty's Government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_es ...
, to acquire certain farms in the Highlands and Islands by compulsory purchase and to have them divided up to provide more crofts. In 1913, four farms on Lewis had been scheduled for take-over, but the action had been opposed by the proprietor at that time, and when the war with Germany broke out it was left in abeyance. Towards the end of the war, in the summer of 1918, the Scottish Office
The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the e ...
first proposed to Leverhulme that under the Small Landholders Act, the Board of Agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.30) and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board ...
should take possession of certain of his farms and create something fewer than a hundred and fifty crofts. He was against this, even though some local politicians believed that Leverhulme's project and the provision of more crofts were not mutually exclusive but Leverhulme firmly believed that he could greatly improve living standards to an extent that crofting would become a forgotten way of life. He was also impatient with politicians’ machinations and the laborious indolence of the political system that persisted with the ‘futile land reform’ instead of adopting what he considered the most sensible course of action; to forget about new crofts and allow him, in the interests of expediency, to behave like the 'monarch' of the Western Isles
The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coas ...
.
Thus, by the beginning of 1919, the positions taken up by those involved were fairly well defined. Robert Munro, himself a Highlander, believed passionately in the reinstatement of the crofts and he also felt strongly that the Imperial Parliament at Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
was unlikely to tolerate any departure from the implementation of land reform, but he saw no reason why Lewis should not have Leverhulme's industrial schemes as well as more crofts. Leverhulme refused to budge, believing that the break-up of his farms would lead to seriously inefficient, probably unsustainable, and ultimately abandoned smallholdings as crofters moved away in search of better incomes. Ranged against this at least ostensibly reasonable prediction was the formidable influence wielded by prospective crofters away fighting in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, as well as by supporters of the Highland League which was politically dedicated to land reform.
In early March 1919, men started to take over Leverhulme's farms on Lewis. They drove off the farmers' livestock, demolished boundary walls, and staked out six-acre plots: by the summer sixteen out of the twenty-two farms on the island had been affected. Expecting Leverhulme's approval, the raiders were taken aback when he voiced his complete condemnation of their actions and asked them to withdraw from his land. Some left, but others erected shelters for their families on the stolen plots. Leverhulme was evidently not willing to prosecute ex-servicemen who were trying to secure homes for their families, and it seems unlikely that, under the circumstances, legal action would have succeeded. Instead, he toured Lewis trying to persuade them that their future lay with him and not in the crofting system. They were, however, extremely reluctant to abandon old ways and most of them continued to espouse the crofting way of life.
Attitudes began to harden and polarise, culminating in politicians pressing ahead with land reform and Leverhulme demanding a ten-year moratorium coupled with a thinly veiled threat to withdraw from his schemes. In early 1920, upon his return from a business trip to the US, Leverhulme learned that raiding had continued during his absence. By then, serious financial difficulties were besetting Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...
concerning the disastrous Niger Company
The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It was formed in 1879 as the ''United African Company '' and renamed to ''National African Company'' in 1881 and to ''Royal Niger Co ...
, making his decision about the Western Isles project relatively straightforward. With a pressing need to make significant savings, he announced his intention to concentrate his efforts on Stornoway and on Harris, and that all work in the country areas of Lewis would be abandoned forthwith.
The population of Harris was smaller in size and more scattered than that of Lewis. Consequently, Leverhulme's plans advanced there with very few problems. With permission from the locals, the fishing village of Obbe was renamed Leverburgh
Leverburgh ( gd, An t-Òb is the second largest village, after Tarbert, in Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Leverburgh is within the parish of Harris. In 1971 it had a population of 223.
History
In his 30s, English businessman William ...
. On 3 September 1923, Viscount Leverhulme
Viscount Leverhulme, of the Western Isles in the Counties of Inverness and Ross and Cromarty, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created in 1922 for the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Baron Leverhulme. He had ...
, as he had become the previous year, addressed the Stornoway Council and the Lewis District Council at a meeting which he had asked to be specially convened on that date. Lord Leverhulme asked them to take the land and make their system work, but only Stornoway, always on Leverhulme's side, accepted the gift, set up the Trust, and to a large extent made it work for the benefit of the town. Left with so much of the Island he no longer wanted, Leverhulme sold off as much as he could, but many of the buyers were interested principally in shooting and fishing. Leverhulme died in May 1925. Very soon thereafter, the Board of Lever Brothers gave orders for all development on Harris to stop, and so Leverhulme's scheme for the Western Isles perished with almost nothing achieved there.
Politics
Prior to serving in cabinet, Lever unsuccessfully contested Birkenhead (UK Parliament constituency)
Birkenhead is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Mick Whitley of the Labour Party.
Profile
The constituency of Birkenhead covers the town of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, and the Bir ...
in 1892, 1894, 1895, and also lost at Ormskirk (UK Parliament constituency)
Ormskirk was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It was created by the Redistribution of Seats ...
in 1910.[ Lever was a lifelong supporter of ]William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
and Liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
. He was invited to contest elections for the Liberal Party. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wirral constituency between 1906 and 1909 and used his maiden speech in the House of Commons to urge Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (né Campbell; 7 September 183622 April 1908) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. He served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 190 ...
's government to introduce a national old age pension, such as the one he provided for his workers. On the recommendation of the Liberal Party, he was created a baronet in 1911 and raised to the peerage as Baron Leverhulme on 21 June 1917,[ the "hulme" element of his title being in honour of his wife, Elizabeth Hulme.
Lever had been ]justice of the peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
for Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, he was also High Sheriff of Lancashire
The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanca ...
in 1917.[ In November 1918 Lord Leverhulme was invited to become ]Mayor of Bolton
This is a list of the Mayors in England, Mayors of Bolton in the north west of England. The office of Mayor is a ceremonial, non-political post. As the Borough's First Citizen, the Mayor serves as the civic representative at a wide range of functi ...
though he was not a councillor because the council wanted to honour a "Notable son of the Town" as a mark of the high regard the citizens of Bolton had for him. He was elevated to the viscountcy on 27 November 1922. Also Lever received the Order of Leopold II
The Order of Leopold II is an order of Belgium and is named in honor of King Leopold II. The decoration was established on 24 August 1900 by Leopold II as Sovereign of the Congo Free State and was in 1908, upon Congo being handed over to Belgi ...
.[
]
Lever's homes
According to W.P. Jolly, "Of the dozen or so houses that Lever lived in, and upon which he stamped his own mark of reconstruction, the three most important were Thornton Manor
Thornton Manor is a large manor house in the village of Thornton Hough, Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* Listed building#England and Wales, l ...
, The Hill at Hampstead in London, and The Bungalow at Rivington
Rivington is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is a rural area consisting primarily of agricultural grazing land, ...
." A further building he purchased was Rockhaven in 1899 in Horwich
Horwich ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Prior to 1974 in the historic county of Lancashire. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest of Manchester. It l ...
. It was built in 1820 by Richard Brownlow, a lawyer, who later became a recluse. It was acquired by Lever after Brownlow's death and was rented out until demolition in 1942, its land was used for coal mining.
Thornton Manor, Cheshire
In 1888, shortly after the birth of William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
, his only surviving child, Lever first rented then bought Thornton Manor
Thornton Manor is a large manor house in the village of Thornton Hough, Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* Listed building#England and Wales, l ...
in Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough () is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest origins. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever, founder of Lever ...
in the Wirral
Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee, Wales, River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the Ri ...
, Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
. He subsequently acquired more land in the village and many of its picturesque, but outdated, houses were demolished and replaced with modern homes which were rented to Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...
employees. The village was later provided with community amenities including a school, shops, social establishments and a church. Thornton Manor was restructured and the gardens greatly extended.
The Hill at Hampstead
In 1904, Lever purchased The Hill, an Edwardian mansion at Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
. It was renamed Inverforth House
Inverforth House (formally known as The Hill) is a large detached house at North End Way on the outskirts of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden, NW postcode area, NW3.Cherry and Pevsner 1999, p. 218. Owned by William Lever, 1st Viscount Lev ...
in 1925 after his death. He rebuilt the house and made additions including a wing on each side of the house, a ballroom and art gallery. In 1911 and 1914 he acquired two neighbouring properties to expand his garden. This led to a dispute with Hampstead Borough Council
Hampstead was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Boa ...
over Lever's intentions to take over a public right of way to join the two plots; an issue that was not resolved to his satisfaction. The Hill was his main home from 1919.
The Bungalow at Rivington
Suffragette Edith Rigby
Edith Rigby ( Rayner) (18 October 1872 – 23 July 1950) was an English suffragette who used arson as a way to further the cause of women’s suffrage. She founded a night school in Preston called St Peter's School, aimed at educating women an ...
claimed to have set fire to Leverhulme's bungalow at Rivington
Rivington is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is a rural area consisting primarily of agricultural grazing land, ...
on 7 July 1913, although it is suspected her confession was false. The property contained a number of valuable paintings and the attack resulted in damage costing £20,000.
Legacy
Lord Leverhulme died at 73 of pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
at his home in Hampstead on 7 May 1925. His funeral was attended by 30,000 people. He is buried in the churchyard of Christ Church in Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...
in what was then Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, now Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
. He was succeeded by his son, William Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme
William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme, DL (25 March 1888 – 27 May 1949), was the son of William Hesketh Lever and Elizabeth Ellen, daughter of Crompton Hulme of Bolton.
He was educated at Eton College and graduated from Cambridge Uni ...
.
Lord Leverhulme was a major benefactor to his native town, Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
, where he was made a Freeman
Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to:
* a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm
* Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies
* Free ...
of the County Borough
County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...
in 1902. In 1899, he bought Hall i' th' Wood
Hall i' th' Wood is an early 16th-century manor house in Bolton in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Greater Manchester, England. It is a Grade I listed building and is currently used as a museum by Bolton Metropo ...
, one time home of Samuel Crompton
Samuel Crompton (3 December 1753 – 26 June 1827) was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry. Building on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright he invented the spinning mule, a machine that revolutionised the ...
, and restored it as a museum for the town. He donated of land and landscaped Lever Park in Rivington in 1902. Lever was responsible for the formation of Bolton School
Bolton School is an independent day school in Bolton, Greater Manchester. It comprises a co-educational nursery, co-educational infant school (ages 3–7), single sex junior schools (ages 7–11) and single sex senior schools including sixth fo ...
after re-endowing Bolton Grammar School and Bolton High School for Girls in 1913. He donated the land for Bolton's largest park, Leverhulme Park
Leverhulme Park is the largest park in the town of Bolton, Greater Manchester. It was donated to the people of Bolton by, and named after, the late Lord Leverhulme. The park is bounded by the Breightmet, Darcy Lever, the Haulgh, and Tonge Fol ...
, in 1914. In 1920 he donated £50 to the Selborne Society
The Selborne Society or Selborne League is Britain's oldest national conservation organization. It was formed in November 1885 to "perpetuate the name and interests of Gilbert White, the Naturalist of Selborne", and followed the philosophy of obse ...
campaign to purchase land in west London, as the "Gilbert White Memorial" - it is now known as the Perivale Wood
Perivale Wood is an 11.6 hectare Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation in Perivale in the London Borough of Ealing. It is one of the oldest nature reserves in Britain. The Selborne Society has manag ...
Local Nature Reserve.[Page 33 of the Selborne Society's Minute Book E]
Leverhulme endowed a school of tropical medicine at Liverpool University
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
, gave Lancaster House
Lancaster House (originally known as York House and then Stafford House) is a mansion in the St James's district in the West End of London. It is close to St James's Palace, and much of the site was once part of the palace complex. This ...
in London to the British nation and endowed the Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to suppo ...
set up to provide funding for education and research, the trust in 2017 became benefactor to Rivington and Blackrod High School
Rivington and Blackrod High School in the North West region of England is a Leverhulme Trust multi-academy school alongside Harper Green School, it operates as a Church of England teaching environment with a sixth form school. The school is lo ...
and Harper Green School
Harper Green School is a coeducational secondary school located in Farnworth, Greater Manchester, England. On 1 March 2017 the school converted into an Academy along with Rivington and Blackrod High School. The school is part of Leverhulme Aca ...
, both becoming Leverhulme Church of England Academies in Bolton. The garden of his former London residence ' The Hill' in Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
, designed by Thomas Mawson
Thomas Hayton Mawson (5 May 1861 – 14 November 1933), known as T. H. Mawson, was a British garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner.
Personal life
Mawson was born in Nether Wyresdale, Lancashire, and left school at age 12. H ...
, is open to the public and has been renamed Inverforth House. A blue plaque at Inverforth House commemorating Leverhulme was unveiled by his great-granddaughter, Jane Heber-Percy, in 2002.
Lever built many houses in Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough () is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest origins. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever, founder of Lever ...
which became a model village comparable to Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...
and in 1906 built Saint George's United Reformed Church. The Lady Lever Art Gallery
The Lady Lever Art Gallery is a museum founded and built by the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme and opened in 1922. The Lady Lever Art Gallery is set in the garden village of Port Sunlight, on the Wirral ...
opened in 1922 and is in the Port Sunlight conservation area. In 1915 Lever acquired a painting entitled "Suspense" by Charles Burton Barber
Charles Burton Barber (1845–1894) was a British painter who attained great success with his paintings of children and their pets.
Barber was born in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, and studied from the age of 18 at the Royal Academy, London - ...
(an artist who came to resent 'manufacturing pictures for the market'). The painting was previously owned by his competitor, A & F Pears, who used paintings such as "Bubbles
Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to:
Common uses
* Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid
** Soap bubble
* Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fundame ...
" by John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
to promote its products. Much of Leverhulme's art collection is displayed in the gallery which houses one of the finest formed by an industrialist in England.
Honours and arms
* Lever Baronetcy, of Thornton Manor
Thornton Manor is a large manor house in the village of Thornton Hough, Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* Listed building#England and Wales, l ...
(1911)
* Baron Leverhulme
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...
, of Bolton-le-Moors
Bolton le Moors (also known as Bolton le Moors St Peter) was a large civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in hundred of Salford in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It was administered from St Peter's Church, Bolton in the township of ...
in the County Palatine of Lancaster
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...
(1917)
* Viscount Leverhulme
Viscount Leverhulme, of the Western Isles in the Counties of Inverness and Ross and Cromarty, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created in 1922 for the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Baron Leverhulme. He had ...
, of The Western Isles
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...
in the Counties of Inverness and Ross and Cromarty (1922)
* High Sheriff of Lancashire
The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanca ...
, 1917
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* Lever's Hampstead house and its garden (Hill Garden) are described in
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Inverforth House, Hamstead Heath, London
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Salespeople's Charity, formerly known as The Commercial Travellers' Benevolent Institution
– a charity that Lord Leverhulme named in his will.
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Port Sunlight
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leverhulme, William Lever, 1st Viscount
1851 births
1925 deaths
Burials in Cheshire
English art collectors
English Congregationalists
English philanthropists
Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England
High Sheriffs of Lancashire
Mayors of Bolton
People from Bolton
Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
West Pennine Moors
Lever, William
Lever, William
UK MPs who were granted peerages
Lever, William Hesketh
Lever family
Viscounts created by George V