William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield
William Richard Morris, Viscount Nuffield, GBE, CH, FRS (10 October 1877 – 22 August 1963), was an English motor manufacturer and philanthropist. He was the founder of Morris Motors Limited and is remembered as the founder of the Nuffield Foundation, the Nuffield Trust and Nuffield College, Oxford, as well as being involved in his role as President of BUPA in creating what is now Nuffield Health. He took his title from the village of Nuffield in Oxfordshire, where he lived.
The Viscount Nuffield
22 August 1963 (aged 85)
Motor manufacturer and philanthropist
Initially Morris Motors relied heavily on Oxford's local labour force,[1] and William Morris became the largest employer in the city.[2] However during the 1920s and 1930s, Oxford saw a dramatic size and population increase following large numbers of unemployed people from depressed areas of Britain seeking work in Morris's factories. This time period was marked with frequent attempts of industrial action protesting against the low pay and poor working conditions in Morris's factories. The first successful strike in a Morris factory was achieved in 1934, led by Communist Party activist Abe Lazarus with support from local Labour Party activists.[3]
William Morris was politically anti-union, anti-Semitic, and a key financier of Oswald Mosley and British fascism.[4] Morris gave Mosley £35,000 to fund the anti-Semitic newspaper Action,[5] and £50,000 in 1930 to finance Mosley's fascist New Party,[6][7][8] which was subsequently absorbed into the British Union of Fascists.[2][9] Morris was also a subscriber to anti-Jewish publications, and his personal papers detailed his belief that the government of England was controlled by Jews.[10] Despite Morris's personal political beliefs, the workers employed in his factories contributed to ushering a wave of left wing political activism across Oxford during the 1930s.[11]
Background[edit]
Morris was born in 1877 at 47 Comer Gardens, a terraced house in the Comer Gardens area of Worcester, England, about 2 miles (3 km) northwest of the centre of the city. He was the son of Frederick Morris and his wife Emily Ann, daughter of Richard Pether.[12] When he was three years old his family moved to 16 James Street, Oxford.[13]