William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield

Morris was born in 1877 at 47 Comer Gardens, a terraced house in the Comer Gardens area of Worcester, England, about northwest of the centre of the city. He was the son of Frederick Morris and Emily Ann, daughter of Richard Pether. When he was three years old his family moved to 16 James Street, Oxford. ==Career==

Before motor car manufacture , Oxford Upon leaving school at the age of 15, William Morris was apprenticed to a local bicycle-seller and repairer. Nine months later, after his employer refused him a pay increase, aged 16 he set up a business repairing bicycles in a shed at the back of his parents' house. This business being a success he opened a shop at 48 High Street and began to assemble as well as repair bicycles, labelling his product with a gilt cycle wheel and The Morris. Morris raced his own machines competing as far away as south London. He did not confine himself to one distance or time and at one point was champion of Oxford (City and County), Berkshire and Buckinghamshire for distances varying between one and fifty miles. He began to work with motorcycles in 1901, designing the Morris Motor Cycle, and in 1902 acquired buildings in Longwall Street from which he repaired bicycles; operated a taxi service; and sold, repaired and hired-out cars. He held the agency for Arrol-Johnston, Belsize, Humber, Hupmobile, Singer, Standard and Wolseley cars. In 1910 he built new premises in Longwall Street, described by a local newspaper as The Oxford Motor Palace, changed his business's name from ‘The Oxford Garage’ to ‘The Morris Garage’ and still had to take more premises in Queen Street. On New Year's Day 1938 he was further ennobled as Viscount Nuffield. In September 1938 he bought the bankrupt Riley (Coventry) and Autovia companies from the Riley family selling them to Morris Motors Limited. He had added another personal investment, Wolseley Motors Limited, to the portfolio of Morris Motors Limited in 1935. After he was ennobled as Baron Nuffield instead of the Morris Organization the whole gallery of all his personal enterprises were promoted as the Nuffield Organization. There was no legal substance to either of these groupings. Factory strike of 1934 In July 1934 a strike took place in a Morris' factory which historians have described as a "spontaneous walkout" of approximately 180 workers. Although the workers had no specific demands, their reasons for walking out ranged from low wages to terrible working conditions. who would later become a key political figure among Oxford's working classes. World War II The Supermarine Spitfire was a technically advanced aircraft. Though ordered by the Air Ministry in March 1936 by early 1938 no single plane had been made. Lord Nuffield had offered his own expertise, and that of his Morris Organization, to design and construct a vast new factory at Castle Bromwich, to his own ideas of industrial planning, claiming he would build four times as many planes there as any other factory in the country. Although the Treasury initially opposed the idea, having concerns about his control over the design of the project and its costs, the huge "Nuffield Project" was approved at a cost of £1.125 million by the Secretary of State for Air and Morris, now Lord Nuffield, placed in charge of it. Within a year, with the factory still not built, the costs had increased to £4.15 million mainly due to constant changes in site layout and design. Nuffield had claimed he could produce 60 Spitfires a week but by May 1940, the height of the Battle of France, not one Spitfire had been built at Castle Bromwich. That month Lord Beaverbrook was placed in charge of all aircraft production, Nuffield was sacked and the plant handed over to Vickers, Supermarine's parent company. Vickers had inherited such a confused construction programme that even by 1942 building work was still going on and the project's accounts were not finally signed off by the Treasury until March 1944. As early as 1942, cracks in the brickwork of the principal building were discovered by Vickers, due to differential expansion of the various types of bricks used in the different stages of construction. Possibly as a result of this débâcle, in 1941 Nuffield invited Mrs Dorothée Martin to join his organisation to advise him on his war work. Post-war Morris Motors Limited merged with Austin Motor Company in 1952 in the new holding company, British Motor Corporation (BMC), of which Nuffield was chairman for its first year. Viscount Nuffield retired as a director of BMC on 17 December 1952 at the age of 75, taking on the title of honorary president instead. Although succeeded as chairman by Leonard Lord, as honorary president he attended his office regularly and continued to advise his colleagues. ==Honours==

• Morris was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1918. • He was created a baronet, of Nuffield in the County of Oxford, in 1929 and • raised to the peerage as Baron Nuffield, of Nuffield in the County of Oxford, in 1934. • In 1938 he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Nuffield, of Nuffield in the County of Oxford. • He was also made :* a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939, and :* a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1958. • He was appointed Honorary Colonel of 52nd (London) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery on 4 June 1937 and continued that role with its postwar successor, 452 HAA Regiment. {{Infobox COA wide ==Personal life and philanthropy==

Morris married Elizabeth Anstey on 9 April 1903. They had no children, and he disbursed a large part of his fortune to charitable causes. He founded Nuffield College, Oxford, in 1937, a post-graduate college and the University's first co-educational college. In 1937 he gave £50,000 to fund the expansion of the Sea Cadet Corps and donated £60,000 to the University of Birmingham for the Nuffield building, to house a cyclotron. In December 1938 he offered to give an iron lung (see Both respirator) made in his factory to any hospital in Britain and the Empire that requested one; over 1,700 were distributed. He also founded the Nuffield Foundation in 1943 with an endowment of £10 million in order to advance education and social welfare. On his death the ownership of his former Oxfordshire home, Nuffield Place and its contents, passed to Nuffield College who opened it to the public on a limited basis. Although a sale had been mooted, it was passed to the National Trust and is open to the public on a regular basis. He is also commemorated in the Morris Motors Museum at the Oxford Bus Museum. Morris also has a building named after him at Coventry University, at Guy's Hospital, London and a theatre at the University of Southampton. The Lady Nuffield Care Home in North Oxford is named after his wife. His home in James Street now has a blue plaque. He died in August 1963, aged 85. The baronetcy and two peerages died with him as he was childless. He was cremated, and his ashes lie in Nuffield churchyard, beside his wife's. Anti-Semitism and support for fascism Historians have described William Morris as politically anti-union and anti-Semitic, often citing the fact that he was a key financer of Sir Oswald Mosley and British fascism. Historian of British fascism Dave Renton describes William Morris as "the most important example" of a wealthy supporter of Sir Oswald Mosley's fascist movement. Despite Morris's personal political beliefs, the workers employed in his factories that organised against their low pay and harsh working conditions would contribute to ushering a wave of left wing political activism across Oxford during the 1930s. Attempted kidnap In May 1938, a serial blackmailer, Patrick Tuellman, tried to kidnap Lord Nuffield for a £100,000 ransom. But Tuellman had an accomplice who betrayed his plan to Oxford City Police. The force briefed Nuffield and planned to catch Tuellman in the attempt. Nuffield took a keen interest in the preparations and insisted on attending every meeting. On 28 May police ambushed Tuellman in Cowley in his car. Officers found him to be in possession of two automatic pistols, ammunition and items of disguise. Birmingham Assizes tried Tuellman and on 22 July convicted him. He served seven years' penal servitude. ==See also==