William Cotts, 1st Baronet

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Sir William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts, 1st Baronet ( July 15, 1871 , † June 20, 1932 ) was a Scottish shipowner and politician.

Life

Cotts was born in 1871, the only child of William Cotts and Sarah Muir . He was active in the grocery trade, for which he used his own ships. He also owned a coal mine. During the First World War , Cotts tried to recruit soldiers in South Africa . He was awarded the Order of the British Empire with the rank of Knight Commander and the Order of Saint John with the rank of Officer . He served as Justice of the Peace in London , Sussex and the Borough of Hampstead . On June 15, 1921, he was awarded the hereditary title of baronet in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom , of Coldharbour Wood in the Parish of Reigate in the County of Sussex . When he died in 1932, his elder son William Campbell Cotts (1902–1964) inherited his title of nobility.

Political career

In the general election of 1918 Cotts ran as a candidate for the Coalition Liberals for the mandate of the newly created constituency of Western Isles . With a difference of 390 votes, however, he could not prevail against the candidate of the Liberal Party , Donald Murray , and thus missed the entry into the British House of Commons . In the following general election in 1922 Cotts ran again against Murray, but this time for the National Liberal Party . He was considered a favorite of William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulmes , the owner of the island. Cotts surprisingly prevailed against Murray with a difference of 939 votes. Murray resigned from the House of Commons and did not run for any further election. The reasons for Murray's defeat were both his lack of connection due to his long absence as a result of his parliamentary activities, as well as his oppositional behavior to Lever's plans, which increasingly found approval among the islanders. At the following elections in 1923 Cotts did not run and resigned from the British House of Commons. The electoral mandate was won by the liberal candidate Alexander Livingstone .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Sir William Dingwall Mitchell Cotts, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com , accessed April 7, 2015.
  2. ^ William Cotts on thepeerage.com , accessed April 7, 2015.
  3. ^ Results of the general election in 1918
  4. ^ Information from the Stornoway Historical Society
  5. ↑ Dignified Retreat in: Roger Hutchinson: The Soap Man: Lewis, Harris and Lord Leverhulme , Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2003. ISBN 978-1-8415-8184-2

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cotts, William, 1st Baronet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cotts, Sir William Dingwall Mitchell, 1st Baronet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish shipowner and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1871
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1932