Joseph Powell Williams: Difference between revisions
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== Early and Working Life == |
== Early and Working Life == |
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Born in |
Born in Worcester, he attended Hazlewood School, [[Birmingham]], which was founded by his father's cousin [[Thomas Wright Hill]]. On leaving school he worked for Graham & James of Ludgate Hill, Solicitors, Birmingham. Business with this firm led him to travel to the United States where he was to represent this and other Birmingham interests. He considered staying but the outbreak of the Civil War led him to return to Britain. He was also a partner in the firm of Hill, Evans & Co., vinegar manufacturers, which, along with [[Lea & Perrins]], and [[Royal Worcester]], were industrial mainstays of the city of [[Worcester]]. One of the founders of Hill, Evans & Co. was Joseph's father (also Joseph) and was originally called Hill, Evans, Williams & Co. |
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On his return from the United States he accepted an appointment to the Post Office which, under the guidance of [[Rowland Hill]] (Joseph's second cousin), was undergoing a substantial revolution in the way it worked. While in the Post Office he had a share in setting up the [[Post Office Savings Bank]]. He also worked in the postal district to which [[Anthony Trollope]] was surveyor and struck up a friendship with Trollope - it is said that he read many of the proofs of his novels. |
On his return from the United States he accepted an appointment to the Post Office which, under the guidance of [[Rowland Hill]] (Joseph's second cousin), was undergoing a substantial revolution in the way it worked. While in the Post Office he had a share in setting up the [[Post Office Savings Bank]]. He also worked in the postal district to which [[Anthony Trollope]] was surveyor and struck up a friendship with Trollope - it is said that he read many of the proofs of his novels. |
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Revision as of 10:55, 6 February 2010
Joseph Powell Williams | |
|---|---|
 The Rt. Hon. Joseph Powell Williams PC | |
| Born | 18 November 1840 |
| Died | 7 February 1904 (aged 63) |
| Cause of death | Apoplexy (probably stroke) |
| Occupation(s) | British businessman and politician. |
| Spouse | Susannah Redford |
| Children | Rowland Powell-Williams Winifred Ethel Williams Mary Dorethy Williams Francis Powell-Williams |
Joseph Powell Williams was a British politician and a close political associate of Joseph Chamberlain.
Early and Working Life
Born in Worcester, he attended Hazlewood School, Birmingham, which was founded by his father's cousin Thomas Wright Hill. On leaving school he worked for Graham & James of Ludgate Hill, Solicitors, Birmingham. Business with this firm led him to travel to the United States where he was to represent this and other Birmingham interests. He considered staying but the outbreak of the Civil War led him to return to Britain. He was also a partner in the firm of Hill, Evans & Co., vinegar manufacturers, which, along with Lea & Perrins, and Royal Worcester, were industrial mainstays of the city of Worcester. One of the founders of Hill, Evans & Co. was Joseph's father (also Joseph) and was originally called Hill, Evans, Williams & Co.
On his return from the United States he accepted an appointment to the Post Office which, under the guidance of Rowland Hill (Joseph's second cousin), was undergoing a substantial revolution in the way it worked. While in the Post Office he had a share in setting up the Post Office Savings Bank. He also worked in the postal district to which Anthony Trollope was surveyor and struck up a friendship with Trollope - it is said that he read many of the proofs of his novels.
In his later life, alongside his political career in Birmingham and Westminster, he held a number of positions including the chairmanship of the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Company.
Political Life
Joseph's family background was in religious dissent, the Williams family had played an active role in the Swan Hill Congregational Chapel in Shrewsbury. They had also had long associations with the craft based industries of the West Midlands conurbation where master often worked on the shop floor alongside their workers. Joseph's interests soon turned to joining the ranks of 'Radical' Liberal politicians who sought to reshape the late Nineteen Century political map of Britain.
On the death of his father in 1873 he returned from London to Birmingham. He had long associated himself with the Liberal Party in Birmingham and in 1877 he was elected as Councillor of St. Thomas's Ward. He joined Birmingham Council during the Mayoralty of Joseph Chamberlain and he was to shape his political career within the group that surrounded Chamberlain. During this time he was Honorary Secretary to the Birmingham Liberal Association and, later, to the National Liberal Federation, and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Birmingham City Council.
In 1885 Joseph Powell Williams entered Parliament for Birmingham South as a Liberal. He joined a group of mainly Birmingham based MP's, led by Joseph Chamberlain. This group disagreed with William Ewart Gladstone on a number of issues, their central platform being opposition to Gladstone's Irish policies. To this end they created the Liberal Unionists in 1886 which were to split from the Liberal Party and side with the Conservatives. Joseph went on to serve in the Unionist administration of Lord Salisbury as Financial Secretary to the War Office from 1895 to 1901 and on leaving that post was sworn into the Privy Council in November 1901.
He is said to have played a key roll in Chamberlain's success in Birmingham and one source states that he and Jesse Collings acted as Chamberlain's "political bodyguards". He is stated to have acted as a 'ghost' for Chamberlain's proposals on the Irish question and his article on the 'Radical Programme'. He was liked for his humour on the floor of the Commons, and reported by The Times to be "greatly esteemed by lobby journalists and officials.", but he was probably more at home in the committee room and the back lobbies. His time as Financial Secretary to the War Office was not always a success and the Daily Chronicle stated that he was a "square peg in a round hole", his office full of "blunders and bulls", but "good humoured about them". Despite his early uneasiness about the alliance between the Liberal Unionists and the Conservatives, the Birmingham Post said that "He kept the Liberal Unionist seats going and the alliance with the Conservatives alive."
In February 1904 Powell-Williams suffered a stroke in the lobby of the House of Commons from which he later died, aged 63.