William Henry Seager

Sir William Henry Seager (1862-10 March 1941), was a Welsh shipping magnate and Liberal Member of Parliament.

Life

The Seager family were originally from Ilfracombe, Devon, but moved to Cardiff in the 1850s. William Henry Seager was born in Cardiff and initially worked as a clerk but established his own business, W. H. Seager & Company, ship's chandlers, in 1892. In 1904 he bought a new ship, the 'Tempus'. By 1910, he was buying more ships, another new ship which Seager called the 'Amicus', then three older ships which he renamed 'Beatus', 'Salvus' and 'Virtus', and also by 1914 the "Campus" had been added to the line. After the First World War three vessels were sold, but more were bought, and by 1928 W. H. Seager & Co. had a total of seven. [http://www.angelfire.com/de/BobSanders/SHIPCO.html W.H.SEAGER & CO] at angelfire.com, accessed 8 July 2008]

A Liberal in politics, in 1918 Seager was elected to the House of Commons for Cardiff East and held the seat until 1922. He was knighted the same year.

During the Second World War, all the company's ships except the 'Campus' were lost by enemy action. Seager died in March 1941.

Family

Seager's sons John Elliot Seager and Leighton Seager (granted a peerage as Baron Leighton of St Mellons in 1962) were also leading Cardiff business men. [Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors), "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage" (New York: St Martin's Press, 1990)]

References

* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]