William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme
Encyclopedia
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme
(19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English
industrialist, philanthropist
, and politician
.
Lever started work at his father's grocery business in Bolton
but as a businessman, he is noted for founding the soap
and cleaning product firm, Lever Brothers
, with his younger brother James
in 1885. He began manufacturing Sunlight Soap
and built a business empire with many well-known brands, such as Lux
and Lifebuoy
. In politics, Lever sat as a Liberal
MP
for Wirral
and then as a Peer
(as Lord Leverhulme). He was an advocate for expansion of the British Empire
, particularly in Africa
and Asia
, which supplied palm oil
, a key ingredient in Lever's product line.
, 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. He was educated at Bolton Church Institute
between 1864 and 1867 and worked in the family grocery business from 1867 until he was given junior partnership in 1872.
Lever was a member of the Congregationalist Church and applied its ideals in his business life. On 17 April 1874 he married Elizabeth Ellen Hulme, daughter of a draper and neighbour from Wood Street, at the Church of St Andrew and St George (then Congregational, now United Reformed) in Bolton. William
, their only surviving child, was born at Thornton Hough
in 1888.
Lever moved to Thornton Hough
in 1888 and bought Thornton Manor in 1893. He subsequently bought the village which he developed as a model village. His London home was The Hill at Hampstead
, bought in 1904. He bought and demolished neighbouring Heath Lodge in 1911 to extend the garden. The Hill was his main home from 1919. In 1899 he bought Rockhaven in Horwich
and the Rivington
estate in early 1900. He built a wooden bungalow on the slopes of Rivington Pike
in 1902 which was burned down in an arson attack in 1913 by suffragette
, Edith Rigby
. Its stone replacement was his summer home until his death.
Lever began collecting artworks in 1893 when he bought a painting by Edmund Leighton
. In his later years, Levehulme became deaf, he had a klaxon horn by his bed to wake him at 5am. He took up ballroom dancing late in life. Throughout his life he thought the only healthy way to sleep was outdoors in the wind and the rain.
Leverhulme was involved with freemasonry
and by 1902 was first initiate to a lodge bearing his name, William Hesketh Lever Lodge No. 2916, he later formed Leverhulme Lodge 4438. He saw freemasonry as a tool to reinforce the hierarchy within Lever Brothers. He was a founder of the Phoenix Lodge 3236 whilst an M.P in 1907 and a founder of St. Hilary Lodge No. 3591 founded 4 May 1912, then Past Pro-Grand Warden (P.P.G.W) and Immediate Past Master (I.P.M). He was appointed Senior Grand Warden
of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England in 1919 and co-founded a number of lodges. He was Provincial Senior Grand Warden of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Cheshire.
Lord Leverhulme died aged 74 of pneumonia
at his home in Hampstead on 7 May 1925. His funeral was attended by 30,000 people.
, with his brother James
. It is now part of Unilever
. It was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and with Lever's business acumen and marketing practices, produced a great fortune.
in Merseyside between the River Mersey
and the railway line at Bebington
. This site became Port Sunlight
where he built his works and a model village
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
s meant that a worker losing his or her job could be almost simultaneously evicted. Even workers social lives were policed from head office. W.H Lever stated “a good workman may have a wife of objectionable habits, or may have objectionable habits himself, which make it undesirable for us to have him in the village.”
. Andrew Pears had taken the lead in using art for marketing by buying paintings such as "Bubbles" by John Everett Millais
to promote its products, which Lever also wanted to do. in 1886. Three years later Lever bought ‘The New York Frock’ by William Powell Frith
to promote his firm's product Sunlight soap
.
of Leeds and several other large soap manufacturers, established a monopoly soap trust, in imitation of similar combinations established in the USA following John D. Rockefeller
's organisation of the Standard Oil Co. as a trust in 1882. Lever believed such an organisation would bring benefits to the consumer as well as the manufacturer, through economies of scale in purchasing and advertising. The scheme was launched when President Roosevelt
had just launched his trust-busting policy in America. The British press, in particular the Daily Mail
, of which he had been one of the largest advertising customers, was virulently opposed to the scheme, and aroused popular hostility urging a boycott of trust brands and making what were later proved in court to be libellous assertions as to the constituent ingredients of the soaps concerned. All participants in the trust suffered severe losses to profits and reputations, Lever estimated his loss at "considerably over half a million" combined with a reduction by a third in the value of his shareholding, the scheme was abandoned before the year's end.
to take advantage of cheap labour and palm oil
concessions in that country. Lever's attitudes towards the Congolese were paternalistic and by today's standards, racist, and his negotiations with the Belgian coloniser to enforce the system known as travail forcé (forced labor) are well documented in the book Lord Leverhulme's Ghosts: Colonial Exploitation In The Congo by Adam Hochschild and Jules Marchal ISBN 9781844672394 in which the author states "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 holocaust.". As such, he participated in this system of formalised labour. The archives show a record of Belgian administrators, missionaries and doctors protesting against the practices at the Lever plantations. Formal parliamentary investigations were called for by members of the Belgian Socialist Party
, but despite their work, the practise of forced labor continued until independence in 1960.
In 1917 in semi-retirement, Lever bought the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides
of Scotland, with the intention of reviving the fishing industry
, by making Stornoway an industrial town with a fish cannery. The product would have been distributed and sold by 400+ shops belonging to Mac Fisheries
, the fish mongers he bought from 1918 onwards. His plans were initially popular, but he was opposed to land re-settlement, and this led to land raids (described under Coll
, their main setting). The government promised land to returning demobilised First World War veterans, and they sided against Lever who abandoned his plans for Lewis. After offering to give Lewis to its people in 1923, he was turned down and sold it to absentee landlords. He concentrated his efforts on Harris, where the town Leverburgh
took his name. Lever bought an estate in Harris in 1919 for £56,000 but this plan floundered after his death, and his executors sold an estimated £500,000 investment for £5,300.
Lever was a lifelong supporter of William Ewart Gladstone
and the Liberal
cause, and 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 to the House of Commons to urge Henry Campbell-Bannerman
'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.
In November 1918 Lord Leverhulme was invited to become Mayor of Bolton 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 High Sheriff of Lancashire
in 1917. He was elevated to the viscountcy on 27 November 1922.
of the County Borough in 1902. He bought Hall i' th' Wood
, one time home of Samuel Crompton
and restored it as a museum for the town. He donated 360 acres (1.5 km²) of land and landscaped Lever Park in Rivington in 1902. Lever was responsible for the formation of Bolton School
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
in 1914.
Leverhulme endowed a school of tropical medicine at Liverpool University, gifted Lancaster House
in London to the British nation and endowed the Leverhulme Trust
set up to provide funding for publications of education and research. The garden of his former London residence 'The Hill' in Hampstead
, designed by Thomas Mawson is open to the public and has been renamed Inverforth House.
He built many houses in Thornton Hough
which became a model village comparable to Port Sunlight
and in 1906 built Saint Georges United Reformed Church
.
The Lady Lever Art Gallery
, opened 1922 and is in the Port Sunlight conservation area. In 1915 Lever acquired a painting entitled "Suspense" by Charles Burton Barber
(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" by John Everett Millais
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.
A.N. Wilson from the Mail Online, January 2010, remarked, "The altruism of Leverhulme or the Cadbury
family are in sad contrast to the antisocial attitude of modern business magnates, who think only of profit and the shareholder."
|-
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...
(19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
industrialist, philanthropist
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
, and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
.
Lever started work at his father's grocery business in Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
but as a businessman, he is noted for founding the soap
Soap
In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...
and cleaning product firm, Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
, with his younger brother James
James Darcy Lever
James Darcy Lever was the co-founder, with his brother William Hesketh Lever, of Lever Brothers, the company that became Unilever. However, due to illness, he played little part in running the business....
in 1885. He began manufacturing Sunlight Soap
Sunlight (cleaning product)
Sunlight is a brand of household soap originally produced by the British company Lever Brothers in 1884. It was the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap. Designed for washing clothes and general household use, the success of the product led to the name for the company's village for its...
and built a business empire with many well-known brands, such as Lux
Lux (soap)
Lux is a global brand developed by Unilever. The range of products includes beauty soaps, shower gels, bath additives, hair shampoos and conditioners. Lux started as “Sunlight Flakes” laundry soap in 1899....
and Lifebuoy
Lifebuoy (soap)
Lifebuoy is a brand of soap containing phenol marketed originally by Lever Brothers in England in 1895.-History:Although Lifebuoy is no longer produced in the US and UK, it is still being mass produced by Unilever in Cyprus for the UK, EU, US and Brazil markets, as well as in Trinidad and Tobago...
. In politics, Lever sat as a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
MP
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
for Wirral
Wirral (UK Parliament constituency)
Wirral was a county constituency which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system....
and then as a Peer
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
(as Lord Leverhulme). He was an advocate for expansion of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, particularly in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, which supplied palm oil
Palm oil
Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...
, a key ingredient in Lever's product line.
Biography
William Lever was born on 19 September 1851 at 6 Wood Street, BoltonBolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, 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. He was educated at Bolton Church Institute
Canon Slade School
Canon Slade School is a Church of England secondary school on Bradshaw Brow in Bradshaw, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England.-History:...
between 1864 and 1867 and worked in the family grocery business from 1867 until he was given junior partnership in 1872.
Lever was a member of the Congregationalist Church and applied its ideals in his business life. On 17 April 1874 he married Elizabeth Ellen Hulme, daughter of a draper and neighbour from Wood Street, at the Church of St Andrew and St George (then Congregational, now United Reformed) in Bolton. William
William Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme
William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme, DL was the son of William Hesketh Lever and Elizabeth Ellen, daughter of Crompton Hulme of Bolton....
, their only surviving child, was born at Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest origins and historically a part of Cheshire. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever...
in 1888.
Lever moved to Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest origins and historically a part of Cheshire. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever...
in 1888 and bought Thornton Manor in 1893. He subsequently bought the village which he developed as a model village. His London home was The Hill at Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, bought in 1904. He bought and demolished neighbouring Heath Lodge in 1911 to extend the garden. The Hill was his main home from 1919. In 1899 he bought Rockhaven in Horwich
Horwich
Horwich is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest from the city of Manchester. It lies at the southern edge of the West Pennine Moors with the M61 motorway close to the...
and the Rivington
Rivington
Rivington is a small 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 situated on the fringe of the West Pennine Moors, at the foot of Rivington Pike...
estate in early 1900. He built a wooden bungalow on the slopes of Rivington Pike
Rivington Pike
Rivington Pike is a hill summit on Winter Hill, part of the West Pennine Moors, overlooking the village of Rivington in Lancashire, England. The nearest towns are Chorley and Horwich. The Pike is a prominent local landmark which derives its name from the Old English hreof plus ing meaning the rough...
in 1902 which was burned down in an arson attack in 1913 by suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
, Edith Rigby
Edith Rigby
Edith Rigby was an English suffragette. She was a contemporary of Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst.-Biography:Born Edith Rayner on St Luke's Day in 1872 in Preston, Lancashire, she was one of seven children of Dr Alexander Clement Rayner and was educated at Penrhos College in North Wales. She...
. Its stone replacement was his summer home until his death.
Lever began collecting artworks in 1893 when he bought a painting by Edmund Leighton
Edmund Leighton
Edmund Blair Leighton was an English painter of historical genre scenes, specializing in Regency and medieval subjects.-Biography:...
. In his later years, Levehulme became deaf, he had a klaxon horn by his bed to wake him at 5am. He took up ballroom dancing late in life. Throughout his life he thought the only healthy way to sleep was outdoors in the wind and the rain.
Leverhulme was involved with freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
and by 1902 was first initiate to a lodge bearing his name, William Hesketh Lever Lodge No. 2916, he later formed Leverhulme Lodge 4438. He saw freemasonry as a tool to reinforce the hierarchy within Lever Brothers. He was a founder of the Phoenix Lodge 3236 whilst an M.P in 1907 and a founder of St. Hilary Lodge No. 3591 founded 4 May 1912, then Past Pro-Grand Warden (P.P.G.W) and Immediate Past Master (I.P.M). He was appointed Senior Grand Warden
Masonic Lodge Officers
This article relates to mainstream Craft Freemasonry, sometimes known as Blue Lodge Freemasonry. Every Masonic Lodge elects or appoints Masonic Lodge Officers to execute the necessary functions of the lodge's life and work...
of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England in 1919 and co-founded a number of lodges. He was Provincial Senior Grand Warden of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Cheshire.
Lord Leverhulme died aged 74 of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at his home in Hampstead on 7 May 1925. His funeral was attended by 30,000 people.
Business
After working for his father's wholesale grocery business, in 1886 he established a soap manufacturing company, Lever BrothersLever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
, with his brother James
James Darcy Lever
James Darcy Lever was the co-founder, with his brother William Hesketh Lever, of Lever Brothers, the company that became Unilever. However, due to illness, he played little part in running the business....
. It is now part of Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
. It was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and with Lever's business acumen and marketing practices, produced a great fortune.
Port Sunlight
In 1887, Lever looking to expand his business, bought 56 acres (226,624.2 m²) of land on the WirralWirral
Wirral may refer to:* Wirral Peninsula, a peninsula in the northwest of England, between the rivers Dee and Mersey* Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, occupying the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula...
in Merseyside between the River Mersey
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
and the railway line at Bebington
Bebington
Bebington is a small town and electoral ward within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. It lies south of Liverpool and west southwest of Manchester, along the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula...
. This site became Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village, suburb and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Between 1894 and 1974 it formed part of Bebington urban district within the county of Cheshire...
where he built his works and a model village
Model village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, in most cases built from the late eighteenth century onwards by industrialists to house their workers...
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
Tied cottage
A tied cottage is a dwelling house typically owned by an employer that is only rented out to their employees, If the resident leave their job for any reason then they must move out of the house. Thus the employee is tied to that employer...
s meant that a worker losing his or her job could be almost simultaneously evicted. Even workers social lives were policed from head office. W.H Lever stated “a good workman may have a wife of objectionable habits, or may have objectionable habits himself, which make it undesirable for us to have him in the village.”
Advertising
Lever's rival in the soap industry was A & F PearsAndrew Pears
Andrew Pears was farmer's son from Cornwall, born in 1766, who invented the transparent soap. He moved to London in 1789 from his home in Mevagissey, Cornwall, where he had trained as a barber....
. Andrew Pears had taken the lead in using art for marketing by buying paintings such as "Bubbles" by John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
to promote its products, which Lever also wanted to do. in 1886. Three years later Lever bought ‘The New York Frock’ by William Powell Frith
William Powell Frith
William Powell Frith , 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 1852...
to promote his firm's product Sunlight soap
Sunlight (cleaning product)
Sunlight is a brand of household soap originally produced by the British company Lever Brothers in 1884. It was the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap. Designed for washing clothes and general household use, the success of the product led to the name for the company's village for its...
.
Soap Monopoly
In 1906 Lever, together with Joseph WatsonJoseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton
Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton was a prominent English industrialist and philanthropist.Watson was the only son of George Watson, soap manufacturer, of Donisthorpe House near Moor Allerton, Leeds, Yorkshire...
of Leeds and several other large soap manufacturers, established a monopoly soap trust, in imitation of similar combinations established in the USA following John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
's organisation of the Standard Oil Co. as a trust in 1882. Lever believed such an organisation would bring benefits to the consumer as well as the manufacturer, through economies of scale in purchasing and advertising. The scheme was launched when President Roosevelt
President Roosevelt
President Roosevelt can refer to two different people who were President of the United States:*Theodore Roosevelt , 26th President from 1901 to 1909, see Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt...
had just launched his trust-busting policy in America. The British press, in particular the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, of which he had been one of the largest advertising customers, was virulently opposed to the scheme, and aroused popular hostility urging a boycott of trust brands and making what were later proved in court to be libellous assertions as to the constituent ingredients of the soaps concerned. All participants in the trust suffered severe losses to profits and reputations, Lever estimated his loss at "considerably over half a million" combined with a reduction by a third in the value of his shareholding, the scheme was abandoned before the year's end.
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 other colonies. In 1911, Lever visited the Belgian CongoBelgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
to take advantage of cheap labour and palm oil
Palm oil
Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...
concessions in that country. Lever's attitudes towards the Congolese were paternalistic and by today's standards, racist, and his negotiations with the Belgian coloniser to enforce the system known as travail forcé (forced labor) are well documented in the book Lord Leverhulme's Ghosts: Colonial Exploitation In The Congo by Adam Hochschild and Jules Marchal ISBN 9781844672394 in which the author states "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 holocaust.". As such, he participated in this system of formalised labour. The archives show a record of Belgian administrators, missionaries and doctors protesting against the practices at the Lever plantations. Formal parliamentary investigations were called for by members of the Belgian Socialist Party
Belgian Socialist Party
The Belgian Socialist Party was a democratic socialist party which existed in Belgium from 1945 to 1978.The BSP was founded by activists from the Belgian Labour Party , which was the first Belgian socialist party. It ceased to function during the Second World War, while Belgium was under Nazi...
, but despite their work, the practise of forced labor continued until independence in 1960.
Lewis & Harris
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...
of Scotland, with the intention of reviving the fishing industry
Fishing industry
The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products....
, by making Stornoway an industrial town with a fish cannery. The product would have been distributed and sold by 400+ shops belonging to Mac Fisheries
Mac Fisheries
Mac Fisheries was a branded United Kingdom retail chain of fish mongers, founded by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, the co-founder with his brother of Lever Brothers, which later merged to become Unilever.-Isle of Lewis:...
, the fish mongers he bought from 1918 onwards. His plans were initially popular, but he was opposed to land re-settlement, and this led to land raids (described under Coll
Coll, Lewis
This article is about the farmland of Coll, on Lewis. For other uses, see Coll Coll is a farming settlement near Stornoway, on the island of Lewis in Scotland....
, their main setting). The government promised land to returning demobilised First World War veterans, and they sided against Lever who abandoned his plans for Lewis. After offering to give Lewis to its people in 1923, he was turned down and sold it to absentee landlords. He concentrated his efforts on Harris, where the town Leverburgh
Leverburgh
Leverburgh is the second largest village, after Tarbert, on the island of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.-History:In his 30's, English businessman William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme had taken a boat trip and fallen in love with the Western Isles of Scotland...
took his name. Lever bought an estate in Harris in 1919 for £56,000 but this plan floundered after his death, and his executors sold an estimated £500,000 investment for £5,300.
Politics
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
and the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
cause, and was invited to contest elections for the Liberal Party. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wirral constituency
Wirral (UK Parliament constituency)
Wirral was a county constituency which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system....
between 1906 and 1909 and used his maiden speech to the House of Commons to urge Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman GCB was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served as Secretary of State for War twice, in the Cabinets of Gladstone and Rosebery...
'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.
In November 1918 Lord Leverhulme was invited to become Mayor of Bolton 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 High Sheriff of Lancashire
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...
in 1917. He was elevated to the viscountcy on 27 November 1922.
Legacy
Lever was a major benefactor to his native town, Bolton, where he was made a FreemanFreedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of the County Borough in 1902. He bought Hall i' th' Wood
Hall i' th' Wood
Hall i' th' Wood is an early 16th century manor house in Bolton, Greater Manchester . It is a Grade I listed building and is currently used as a museum by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. The original building is timber framed and has a stone flagged roof; there were later additions to the...
, one time home of Samuel Crompton
Samuel Crompton
Samuel Crompton was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry.- Early life :Samuel Crompton was born at 10 Firwood Fold, Bolton, Lancashire to George and Betty Crompton . Samuel had two younger sisters...
and restored it as a museum for the town. He donated 360 acres (1.5 km²) of land and landscaped Lever Park in Rivington in 1902. Lever was responsible for the formation of Bolton School
Bolton School
Bolton School is an independent day school in Bolton, in the North-West of England. It comprises a co-educational Nursery and Infant School and single sex Junior and Senior Schools . With almost 2,400 pupils it is one of the largest independent day schools in the country.-History:Bolton School...
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
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 Fold. Since its earlier days as simply a park, Leverhulme...
in 1914.
Leverhulme endowed a school of tropical medicine at Liverpool University, gifted Lancaster House
Lancaster House
Lancaster 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...
in London to the British nation and endowed the Leverhulme Trust
Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the will of the First Viscount Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, with the instruction that its resources should be used to support "scholarships for the purposes of research and education."...
set up to provide funding for publications of education and research. The garden of his former London residence 'The Hill' in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, designed by Thomas Mawson is open to the public and has been renamed Inverforth House.
He built many houses in Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough
Thornton Hough is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England, of pre-Conquest origins and historically a part of Cheshire. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever...
which became a model village comparable to Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village, suburb and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Between 1894 and 1974 it formed part of Bebington urban district within the county of Cheshire...
and in 1906 built Saint Georges United Reformed Church
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
.
The Lady Lever Art Gallery
Lady Lever Art Gallery
The Lady Lever Art Gallery was founded in 1922 by Sunlight Soap magnate, William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, and dedicated to the memory of his wife....
, opened 1922 and is in the Port Sunlight conservation area. In 1915 Lever acquired a painting entitled "Suspense" by Charles Burton Barber
Charles Burton Barber
Charles Burton Barber , was an English 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 - receiving a silver medal for drawing in 1864, and first exhibiting...
(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" by John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
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.
A.N. Wilson from the Mail Online, January 2010, remarked, "The altruism of Leverhulme or the Cadbury
Cadbury
-Businesses:*Cadbury Adams, the company's North American subsidiary*Cadbury Ireland, the company's Irish subsidiary*Cadbury UK, the company's UK subsidiary*Cadbury India, the company's Indian subsidiary*Cadbury New Zealand, the company's New Zealand subsidiary...
family are in sad contrast to the antisocial attitude of modern business magnates, who think only of profit and the shareholder."
Quotes
William Lever made the quote about advertising, "I know half my advertising isn't working, I just don't know which half."Honours
- Baronetcy 1911,
- Baron Leverhulme, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County Palatine of Lancaster 1917
- Viscount Leverhulme, of The Western Isles, in the Counties of Inverness and Ross and Cromarty 1922
- High Sheriff of LancashireHigh Sheriff of LancashireThe 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...
, 1917
Titles and styles
- Mr William Lever 1851–1911
- Sir William Lever, Bt 1911–1917
- The Rt. Hon. The Lord Leverhulme 1917–1922
- The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Leverhulme 1922–1925
Further reading
- Jolly, W. P., Lord Leverhulme, Constable, London, ISBN 0-09-461070-3
- Lewis, Brian. So Clean: Lord Leverhulme, Soap and Civilization (2008)
- Smith, Malcolm David, Leverhulme's Rivington, Wyre Publishing, Lancashire, ISBN 0-9526187-3-7, The Story of the Rivington 'Bungalow'.
- Mawson, Thomas H,, Bolton A Study In Town Planning & Art
- Hutchinson, Roger, "The Soapman"
- Nicolson, Nigel, "Lord of the Isles"
- Bergin, John Philip, "Nature and the Victorian Entrpreneur: Soap, Sunlight and Subjectivity". Unpublished PhD, University of Hull, 1999.
- Hochschild Adam and Marchal Jules, "Lord Leverhulme's Ghosts: Colonial Exploitation In The Congo" ISBN 978-1-84467-239-4 in
External links
Lever's Hampstead house and its garden (Hill Garden) are described in- The Hill, (Inverforth House) Hamstead heath, London
- Ronald Fisher (whose family lived in the house before Lever)
- Lord Leverhulme's vision of Leverburgh
- The Commercial Travellers' Benevolent Institution - a charity that Lord Leverhulme named in his will.
- Port Sunlight
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