William Vansittart Bowater
William Vansittart Bowater (15 March 1838 - 28 April 1907) was the founder of the Bowater paper concerns.
1838 Born in Birmingham, son of Thomas Vansittart Bowater, commercial clerk and traveller, and his wife Sarah[1]
He joined James Wrigley and Sons, a Manchester papermaking firm, where he later became a manager. He is reputed to have been ill-tempered, tyrannical, and hard-drinking, traits that eventually led to his dismissal by Wrigley.
1861 William Bowater married Eliza Jane Davey in Islington[2]. They went on to have nine children including Thomas Vansittart Bowater and Frank Bowater, both of whom were to become Lord Mayor of London.
1862 A traveller, on the christening of his son Thomas in Manchester[3]
1871 William V Bowater 33, a stationer, lived in Broughton, Salford with Eliza J Bowater 32, Thomas V Bowater 8, Edith A Bowater 7, Frank K Bowater 5, Fredk W Bowater 3, Herbert J Bowater 7 months[4]
They later lived at Bury Hall in Edmonton
1881 William Bowater decided to establish himself in business as a paper agent, a business which later became W. V. Bowater and Sons
1891 William V Bowater 53, agent, lived in Sydenham with Eliza J Bowater 52, Frank H Bowater 25, agent, Mabel Bowater 19, Sydney Bowater 16, Norman W Bowater 8[5]
The business expanded rapidly in the final decades of the nineteenth century supplying newsprint for both the Daily Mail and the Daily Chronicle.
1907 Died in Edmonton[6]