| George Alfred Wills |
| The Times |
| Thursday, July 12, 1928 |
SIR GEORGE WILLS MUNIFICENT GIFTS TO BRISTOL George Alfred Wills was the head of the eminent Bristol family which has received in quite recent times a peerage (Winterstoke) and four baronetcies. The eldest son of Mr. Henry Overton Wills, he was born on June 3, 1854, was educated at Mill Hill School, and joined in 1874 the family business of W. D. and H. O. Wills, tobacco manufacturers, of Bristol, of which he became managing director. When it was taken over with other firms in 1901 by the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland, which was formed for that purpose, he was made deputy-chairman. He succeeded his cousin, the late Lord Winterstoke, as chairman of the Imperial Tobacco Company in 1911, and retired in 1924. The company made great progress under his control, and in recognition of his services the directors invited him to accept the honorary title of president. He was also a director of the Great Western Railway. He was sheriff of Bristol in 1899-1900. Sir George Wills - he was created a baronet in 1923 - maintained the tradition of his family for munificent public benefactions. To the new Bristol University, of which his father was the first Chancellor and the practical founder, he |
presented two sums of £110,000 and £25,000 in 1924 and 1926 for the erection of a residential hall for men students on the property of Downside, adjoining Durdham Down. This was a memorial to his late brother, Mr. H. M. Wills who originally bought the Downside estate and presented it to the University. He was an active and able chairman of the council, and pro-Chancellor of the University, which made him Hon. LL.D.; he was also hon.. D.C.L. of Oxford. Sir George and his brother presented as a memorial to their father, at a cost of over £500,000, the new main building of the University, opened by the King in 1925, and he gave £25,000 to the Bristol Corporation for the enlargement of the Museum and Art Gallery. He gave £6,000 to Bristol Cathedral for new vestries and a choir practice room, and to the diocese of Bath and Wells - the Bishop is his son-in-law - he gave £5,000 and subsequently £20,000 for increasing clergy stipends. He presented Leigh Woods, on the banks of the Avon, to the National Trust, and he was president of the Bristol General Hospital, to which he made many gifts. In 1921 he was made a freeman of Bristol. At Blagdon, where he usually lived, he carried on the tradition of high farming, and was a successful breeder of Shorthorns. He was a keen angler and a good game shot. Members of the Wills family have left large fortunes. Sir George's father, Mr. H. O. Wills, who died 19 years ago, left £5,200,000, and his cousin, Mr. F. N. H. Wills, left £5,053,360 when he died last October. Nine other members of the family have each left £1,000,000 or more. |