Grocer 1867-86, soap manufacturer from 1886; founder of Port Sunlight and Chairman of Lever Brothers plc; Member of Parliament (Liberal) for Wirral 1906-10; High Sheriff of Lancashire 1917; Mayor of Bolton 1918-19; Junior Warden, Grand lodge of England 1918.

Resources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lever,_1st_Viscount_Leverhulme
• http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/heritage_soap_boiler_social_reformer_...
• http://www.stmarksbolton.webspace.virginmedia.com/nleverst.htm
• http://www.history.co.uk/biographies/lord-leverhulme
• https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/GM7Y-TY4
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lever-255
• https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/William_Hesketh_Lever
• https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/l/williamlever.html
• https://leverhulme.net/our-history
• https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcr...
• https://victorianbolton.org.uk/william-hesketh-lever-the-first-visc...
• https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F41423
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16965515/william_hesketh-lever

Manufacturer. Soap-manufacturer who, after expanding his father's business, specialized in the making of soap for which he registered the name "Sunlight". He housed his many works in new homes, providing schools and a pleasant working environment in a forward-thinking social philanthropy that was to mark his future efforts and earn him a baronage in 1917 and viscountcy in 1922.
∼
William Hesketh Lever, English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. 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 built Port Sunlight for his workers and 1922 he founded the Lady Lever Art Gallery there which he dedicated to his late wife Elizabeth. They are buried nearby.