Sir George White, 1st Baronet (1854–1916), was an English businessman and stockbroker based in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. He was instrumental in the construction of the

Bristol tramways Bristol Tramways operated in the city of Bristol, England from 1875, when the Bristol Tramways Company was formed by Sir George White, until 1941 when a Luftwaffe bomb destroyed the main power supply cables. History The first trams in Brist ...

and became a pioneer in the construction of electric tramways in England. In 1910 he formed, with his brother Samuel, the Bristol Aeroplane Company. He had many other interests, particularly in transport companies.

Early life

White was born in Kingsdown, Bristol, on 28 March 1854, the son of James White, a painter and decorator, and his wife Eliza who had been a domestic servant before marrying. He attended St Michaels Boys' School, and in 1869 joined Stanley & Wasbrough (a Bristol firm of solicitors) as a junior clerk. In 1874 the firm was involved in the promotion of the Bristol Tramways Company, following the passage of the Tramways Act 1870, and White played a major part. In 1875 he left the company and established a stockbroking firm, George White & Co.Jon Press (2004) ‘White, Sir George, first baronet (1854–1916)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
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Tramways, cabs and omnibuses

In 1875 White was working with some of the richest and most influential men in Bristol. William Butler was the chairman of the Bristol Tramways Company who had already made a fortune in tar-distilling. Wholesaler Henry Gale Gardner and coal magnate Joseph Wethered were also on the board, and George White became the part-time secretary of the Bristol Tramways Company at a salary of £150 per annum. Over the next ten years, White grew his stockbroking firm, using money borrowed from Henry Gale Gardner's wagon-building company and working on behalf of the wealthy contacts he had already made including

Stuckey's Bank Parr's Bank Limited was a bank that existed from 1782 to 1918. It was founded as Parr & Co. in Warrington, then in the county of Lancashire in the United Kingdom. In 1918 it was acquired by London County and Westminster Bank, and it was thus one ...

. White continued to become more prominent in the Bristol Tramways Company. The 1880s saw the tramway network in Bristol grow and demand for more growth was abundant. George White maintained a good public profile and worked the local press so that the working class districts of Bristol would see the benefits the trams would give them. In the more affluent Clifton it was feared that the trams would bring in undesirable visitors and depress property values, resulting in the Clifton route being served only by horse omnibuses. In 1892 he also became involved in the

Imperial Tramways Company The Imperial Tramways Company Ltd (1878 to 1930) was created to bring under common management a number of street tramways. Originally based in London, its headquarters moved to Bristol in 1892 and from then on it shared its senior management with ...

, which operated horse trams in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, the

Corris Railway The Corris Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Corris) is a narrow gauge preserved railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in Mid-Wales. The line opened in 1859 as a horse tramway, runni ...

and, from 1894,

London United Tramways London United Tramways Company Limited was an operator of trams and trolleybuses in the western and southern suburbs of London, UK, from 1894 to 1933, when it passed to the London Passenger Transport Board. Origins The company was formed in 189 ...

, which operated horse trams in

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...

. In 1887 the Bristol tramways company was merged into the new

Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company The Bristol Omnibus Company was a dominant bus operator in Bristol, and was one of the oldest bus companies in the United Kingdom. It ran buses over a wide area of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and neighbouring counties. History ...

with White as managing director after the company gained a monopoly on horse-drawn cabs travelling from Bristol Temple Meads station. By 1889 the company owned 876 horses and by 1891 the combined tramways, cab and omnibus company provided 38 journeys per head of Bristol's population per year. In the 1890s White was an enthusiastic promoter of electric tramways together with the engineer James Clifton Robinson, to cut the high costs and get rid of the dirty aspects of horse-drawn trams. Starting with a line in Old Market and quickly rolling out the electric line to the existing tram system, as well as extending lines to

Fishponds Fishponds is a large suburb in the north-east of the English city of Bristol, about from the city centre. It has two large Victorian-era parks: Eastville Park and Vassall's Park (once the Vassall Family estate, also known as Oldbury Court). ...

Bedminster Down Bishopsworth is the name of both a council ward of the city of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and a suburb of the city which lies within that ward. Bishopsworth contains many council estates. As well as the suburb of Bishopsworth, the ward cont ...

, Knowle,

Brislington Brislington is an area in the south east of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and from Bath. Brislington Brook runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley and St Anne's Wood. Brislington formerly hou ...

and Hanham, which was completed by 1900. White's influence went far beyond Bristol. By 1892 he gained control of

which ran networks in Dublin, Reading and Middlesbrough. In 1894 White and Clifton Robinson formed

and created a major suburban transport system for the capital out of the derelict remains of the West Metropolitan Tramways Company. White also got himself involved in greater projects such as expansion of the Bristol & London & South Western Junction Railway, which involved using the tracks that the Great Western Railway ran on for trains from Waterloo. Whilst the venture did not come to fruition due to overwhelming opposition from Great Western Railway, it still increased White's profile and standing with Bristol's civic and commercial elite. By 1887, White was the largest shareholder in the Bristol Port Railway & Pier Company and launched an ambitious but unsuccessful project to link the city docks with the

Avonmouth Docks The Avonmouth Docks are part of the Port of Bristol, in England. They are situated on the northern side of the mouth of the River Avon, opposite the Royal Portbury Dock on the southern side, where the river joins the Severn estuary, within Avo ...

, opened only 10 years previously, to make a direct connection with the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

at Bristol. White understood the importance of publicity and worked closely with his brother-in-law, Edward Everard to publish illustrated guides and brochures to advertise his companies' services. White became Managing Director of Bristol Tramways in 1894 and chairman in 1900, a post he retained until his death. Under his leadership the company introduced motor buses in 1906, and began the manufacture of buses in 1908. It was renamed as the

Bristol Omnibus Company The Bristol Omnibus Company was a dominant bus operator in Bristol, and was one of the oldest bus companies in the United Kingdom. It ran buses over a wide area of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and neighbouring counties. History ...

in 1957.

Motor vehicles

Between 1905 and 1908, White tested and developed a fleet of twelve motorised

Thornycroft Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977. History In 1896, naval engineer John Isaac Thornycroft formed the Thornycroft Steam Carriage and Van Company which built its firs ...

double-decker buses, with routes starting from Bristol and travelling to depots in Bath, Cheltenham, Gloucester and

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmix ...

. White saw motor taxis used in France and introduced them to Bristol's streets in 1908. In 1913 White built a motor construction factory in South Bristol capable of building 300 vehicles per year, and by 1914 the company was one of the biggest employers in Bristol with 17 tramways services and 15 omnibus services and a fleet of 44 buses, 169 tramcars, 124 taxis and 29 charabancs, plus vans, lorries and commercial vehicles.

Aircraft

White became interested in heavier-than-air flight, and in 1909 saw Wilbur Wright flying in France. On 19 February 1910 he founded the Bristol Aeroplane Company (originally called the British & Colonial Aeroplane Company). This set out from the first to produce aircraft on a commercial scale, with premises in

Filton Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church ...

at the end of White's tramway terminus. After some early misadventures the company produced 80

Bristol Boxkite The Boxkite (officially the Bristol Biplane) was the first aircraft produced by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (later known as the Bristol Aeroplane Company). A pusher biplane based on the successful Farman III, it was one of the fi ...

s to great commercial success. The first overseas order for Boxkites was from the Russian government in 1910, following which the licence to produce Bristol designs was sold to France, Germany and Italy. The Bristol Fighter went into production in 1916, shortly before White's death, for use during

World War I 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 ...

Other interests

White also had interests in the Great Western Steamship Company, the Bristol Port and Channel Dock Company (which built

), the North Somerset Railway, the Main Colliery Company and the

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in st ...

. He also served as president of the Bristol Stock Exchange.

Philanthropy

In 1904 Sir George White saved the hospital from debts of over £15,000 by increasing the number of subscribed donors and planning a fundraising carnival at

Bristol Zoo Bristol Zoo was a zoo in the city of Bristol in South West England. The zoo's stated mission was to "maintain and defend” biodiversity through breeding endangered species, conserving threatened species and habitats and promoting a wider unders ...

.G. Munro Smith MD, A History of the Royal Infirmary, Arrowsmith Publishing, 1917 White was appointed president of the hospital in 1906. Recognising the need to modernise the hospital building to keep up with innovations in science and medicine, he established a £50,000 fund to build a new hospital building. As a result, the new

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

Memorial Wing designed by

Charles Holden Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

was completed in 1912. White was also a benefactor of the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

and other charities. He was created a

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 14t ...

on 26 August 1904 for his public service.

Personal life and death

White married Caroline Thomas (d. 1915) in 1876. They had two children, Daisy May (b. 1877) and George Stanley (b. 1882). He died at his home in

Stoke Bishop Stoke Bishop is a medium-sized outer city suburb in the north-west of Bristol, located in between Westbury-on-Trym, Sneyd Park, and Sea Mills. Although relatively low, Stoke Bishop's population has increased due to substantial infilling on the ...

, Bristol, on 22 November 1916, aged 62.

Successors to the title

* White baronets * Sir George Stanley White, 2nd Baronet (1882–1964) * Sir George Stanley Midelton White, 3rd Baronet (1913–1983) * Sir George Stanley James White, 4th Baronet (b. 1948)

References

Bibliography

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