Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray

Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray GCVO (July 15, 1856 – May 1, 1927) was an engineer, oil industrialist, and owner of the Pearson conglomerate. He was born 15 July 1856 at Shelley, Woodhouse, Yorkshire, the son of George Pearson and Sarah Weetman Dickinson.

The Pearson firm, started by his grandfather Samuel in 1844 and today known as a publishing house, initially focused on construction. He took over the company in 1880, eventually moving the headquarters from Yorkshire to London. An early proponent of globalization, he built the Dover harbour, docks in Halifax, railroads and harbors around the world, and the Sennar Dam in Sudan. In 1889, Porfirio Diaz invited him to Mexico to build a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific. While laying track, his crew discovered one of the world's largest oil fields, the Potrero del Llano. He created the Mexican Eagle Oil Company (Cia Mexicana de Petroleo El Aguila SA) in 1900, which was one of Mexico's largest firms until it was nationalized in 1938. In 1900 his company took over the construction of the Great Northern and City Railway and after completion in 1904 ran it for four years [S Halliday "Underground to Everywhere" Sutton Publishing 2001 p52]

Pearson was elected Liberal M.P. for Colchester in the 1895 General Election and held the seat until 1910 when he was created Baron Cowdray, of Midhurst in the County of Sussex. During World War I, under his leadership, the Gretna Green munition factory and the tank assembly at Chateauroux were built.

In January, 1917, he became 1st Viscount Cowdray. That same month, David Lloyd George requested that he become President of the Air Board. Pearson agreed, provided that he receive no salary. Lord Cowdray worked diligently to improve the output of aircraft and produced a threefold increase in the number of aircraft under his tenure. Yet he was criticized after German bombing produced over 600 casualties on June 13, and resigned the following November.

Following the war, he was active in Liberal politics and in philanthropic activities. He endowed a professorship in the Spanish department at the University of Leeds, and contributed to University College London, the League of Nations Union, the Royal Air Force Club and Memorial Fund, and to many public projects.

Pearson had four children: Weetman Harold Miller, Bernard Clive, Francis Geoffrey, and Gertrude Mary. Harold inherited his father's title and succeeded him in Parliament. Gertrude Mary, Baroness Denman GBE, became the wife of Lord Denman, a Governor-General of Australia.

References

* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/EGcowdray.htm Focuses on his political career]
* [http://www.applet-magic.com/villa.htm Information about his dealings with Porfirio Diaz]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20051120224127/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/heritage/garner.htm Speech by the current Cowdray Professor of Spanish]
*"Lord Cowdray: A Great Captain of Industry," obituary in "The Times" of London, 2 May, 1927, page 16.