Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray

The Right Honourable The Viscount Cowdray GCVO, PC
Lord Cowdray.
President of the Air Board
In office 3 January 1917 – 26 November 1917
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Earl Curzon of Kedleston
Succeeded by	The Lord Rothermere
Personal details
Born	15 July 1856 Shelley Woodhouse, Yorkshire
Died	1 May 1927
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Annie Cass

Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray GCVO, PC (15 July 1856 – 1 May 1927), known as Sir Weetman Pearson, Bt, between 1894 and 1910 and as The Lord Cowdray between 1910 and 1917, was a British engineer, oil industrialist, benefactor and Liberal politician. He was the owner of the Pearson conglomerate.

Background

Pearson was born at Shelley Woodhouse, Yorkshire, the son of George Pearson and Sarah Weetman Dickinson.

Business career

The Pearson firm, started by his grandfather Samuel in 1844 and today known as a publishing house, initially focused on construction. He took over the company in 1880, eventually moving the headquarters from Yorkshire to London. An early proponent of globalization, he built the Dover harbour, docks in Halifax, railroads and harbors around the world, and the Sennar Dam in Sudan. In 1889, Porfirio Diaz invited him to Mexico to build a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific. While laying track, his crew discovered one of the world's largest oil fields, the Potrero del Llano. He created the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company, one of Mexico's largest firms. It was taken over by the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (now Royal Dutch Shell) in 1919. In 1900 his company took over the construction of the Great Northern and City Railway and after completion in 1904 ran it for four years

Political career

Pearson was created a Baronet, of Paddockhurst, in the Parish of Worth, in the County of Sussex, and of Airlie Gardens, in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of London, in 1894. He was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Colchester in the 1895 general election. He held the seat until 1910 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cowdray, of Midhurst in the County of Sussex. His time is connected with a number of developments, most notably the opening of Colchester Castle to the public. Under his leadership during World War I, the munitions factory HM Factory, Gretna and the tank assembly at Chateauroux were built.

In January 1917, he was sworn of the Privy Council and made Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the County of Sussex. That same month, David Lloyd George requested that he become President of the Air Board. Cowdray agreed, provided that he receive no salary. Lord Cowdray worked diligently to improve the output of aircraft and produced a threefold increase in the number of aircraft under his tenure. Yet he was criticized after German bombing produced over 600 casualties on 13 June, and resigned the following November.

Following the war, he was active in Liberal politics and in philanthropic activities. He endowed a professorship in the Spanish department at the University of Leeds, and contributed to University College London, the League of Nations Union, the Royal Air Force Club and Memorial Fund, and to many public projects.

Family

Lord Cowdray married Annie Cass, daughter of Sir John Cass. They had four children: Harold Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray, Bernard Clive Pearson, Francis Geoffrey Pearson (d. 1914), and Gertrude Mary Pearson. Gertrude Mary, Baroness Denman GBE, became the wife of Lord Denman, Governor-General of Australia. Lord Cowdray died in May 1927, aged 70, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Harold.

Death of youngest son

Hon. Francis Geoffrey Pearson was born on 23 August 1891. He married Ethel Elizabeth Lewis, daughter of John J. Lewis, on 6 August 1909. In August 1914, he joined the Motor Transport Division of the BEF as a motorcycle courier, having the rank of Staff Sergeant. Early in September, as the Allied Armies were rolled back toward the Marne during the German drive on Paris, he was captured near the town of Varreddes, dying on 6 September 1914 at age 23.

Reports surfaced later that he had been treated with unconscionable brutality by his captors, directly causing his death. Great indignation was raised by these reports, one of many that were flooding out of Northern France at the time. The incident was referenced by Arthur Conan Doyle in his 1914 book "The German War" (Chapter VI, 'A Policy of Murder'), who called him 'the gallant motor-cyclist, Pearson'.

References

• Focuses on his political career
• Information about his dealings with Porfirio Diaz
• "Lord Cowdray: A Great Captain of Industry," obituary in The Times of London, 2 May 1927, page 16.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Cowdray