William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme

For his son, see William Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme.

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Leverhulme
Member of Parliament
for Wirral
In office
1906–1909
Preceded byJoseph Hoult
Succeeded byGershom Stewart
Personal details
Born
William Hesketh Lever

(1851-09-19)19 September 1851
Bolton, Lancashire, England
Died7 May 1925(1925-05-07) (aged 73)
Hampstead, London, England
Political partyLiberal Party
SpouseElizabeth Ellen Hulme
ChildrenWilliam, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme
EducationBolton Church Institute
University of Edinburgh[1]
OccupationIndustrialist, philanthropist and politician
Known forLever Brothers

William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme FRGS FRIBA,[1] (/ˈliːvər/, /ˈliːvərhjuːm/; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools, he joined his father's wholesale grocery business in Bolton at the age of fifteen. Following an apprenticeship and a series of appointments in the family business, which he successfully expanded, he began manufacturing Sunlight Soap, building a substantial business empire with many well-known brands such as Lux and Lifebuoy. In 1886, together with his brother, James, he established Lever Brothers, which was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and which is now part of the British multinational Unilever. In politics, Lever briefly sat as a Liberal MP for Wirral and later, as Lord Leverhulme, in the House of Lords as a Peer. 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. His firm had become associated with activities in the Belgian Congo by 1911.[2][3][4]

A patron of the arts, Lever began collecting artworks in 1893 when he bought a painting by Edmund Leighton.[5] Lever's rival in the soap industry, A & F Pears, had taken the lead in using art for marketing by buying paintings such as Bubbles by John Everett Millais to promote its products. Lever's response was to acquire similarly illustrative works, and he later bought The New Frock by William Powell Frith to promote the Sunlight soap brand.[6] In 1922 he founded the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight in Cheshire which he dedicated to his late wife Elizabeth.[7]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Debrett was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Jolly 1976.
  3. ^ Marchal 2001, pp. 348–368.
  4. ^ Williams 2019.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference christies was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference LiverpoolMuseums1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference LiverpoolMuseums2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).