William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield

William Richard Morris, around 1920

William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield (born October 10, 1877 in Worcester , † August 22, 1963 in Nuffield, South Oxfordshire ) was the founder of the Morris Motor Company and was also known as a philanthropist due to his social commitment .

life and work

After leaving school at 15, Morris began training as a bicycle mechanic and salesman in Oxford . Just nine months later, at the age of 16 with £ 4 starting capital, he opened a small bicycle repair shop in his parents' home. Since his business was doing very well, he was soon able to expand. In his new shop, he not only repaired bicycles, but soon began his own production. From 1901 onwards, Morris increasingly turned to motorized vehicles and in the same year designed a motorcycle, the Morris Motor Cycle . In 1902 he acquired a larger workshop and from then on concentrated on the sale and repair of automobiles.

In 1912, Morris designed the Bull Nosed Morris , a car that would give him his breakthrough as a car manufacturer. Production of the model was initially started in a disused former barracks in Cowley . However, the outbreak of World War I soon meant a major setback for the company and the factory was converted into an ammunition production facility for the duration of the war. Immediately after the war, however, they quickly returned to the production of automobiles. Between 1919 and 1925, Morris was able to increase the production of his automobile from an initial 400 to 56,000 units annually by buying additional production facilities in Abingdon, Birmingham and Swindon or having them built. Morris' success during this time was due in particular to the introduction of the assembly line production optimized by Henry Ford in the USA for car production . This made it possible for Morris to manufacture vehicles that were no longer affordable for the particularly wealthy classes.

A new, no less successful model was introduced in 1929, the Morris Minor .

That same year, Morris was given the hereditary title of Baronet , of Nuffield in the County of Oxford. In 1934 he was awarded the title Baron Nuffield , of Nuffield in the County of Oxford to peer collected and became a member of the House of Lords . In 1938 he was also promoted to Viscount Nuffield , of Nuffield in the County of Oxford.

In 1938, Morris bought the bankrupt bicycle and car manufacturer Riley from the owner family and immediately sold the business to his own Morris Motor Company . In the same year he acquired the Wolseley Motor Company and also merged it with his company, which subsequently operated as the Nuffield Organization . After merging with the Austin Motor Company in 1952, the British Motor Corporation was formed .

Although Morris had been married to Elizabeth Anstey since 1904, the marriage remained childless. Accordingly, his titles of nobility found no successors at his death and became extinct.

William Richard Morris died at the age of 85 and is buried in the Holy Trinity Churchyard of Nuffield , Oxfordshire .

Patronage

Since Morris did not see the accumulation of wealth as an end in itself, he donated and donated a large part of his wealth for social and community purposes. During his lifetime, Morris spent nearly £ 30 million of his fortune on these matters, which on today's calculations would be close to £ 600 million. He founded u. a. In 1943 the Nuffield Foundation to promote education and social welfare and endowed it with a capital of £ 10 million. He also founded Nuffield College in Oxford. He also spent a not inconsiderable part of his fortune on medicine, thereby promoting the establishment and maintenance of hospitals (“Nuffield Hospitals”).

See also

• Nuffield College
• Anglo-German Fellowship

Web links

• Brief biography
• The Nuffield Foundation
• Nuffield Place, home of William Morris
• The British Motorcar film portrait by William Morris and his factory, in the National Archives (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Knerger.de: The grave of William Richard Morris