Constituency : Aberdeen 1857-72
William was a colourful character. He was a Yorkshireman who signed up with the army in India as a young man and saw considerable action. While a serving officer he pursued his twin interests of statistics and natural history ( he discovered a number of new bird species ) and also built up a personal fortune, the origins of which remain obscure.He retired from active service in 1833 with the rank of colonel but remained in public life as a Royal Commissioner in Lunacy, a post he held for ten years. In 1840 he became a director of the East Indian Company.
Sykes was described as having a "rather seedy...swarthy cadaverous look". He had advanced views on social reform and supported licensing reform, Irish Church diestablishment and female suffrage. The Scottish Reform League endorsed his candidature in 1868
He first contested Aberdeen in 1847 after being invited up there by a civic faction including some Conservatives but was not successful against another liberal . Sykes had retained an interest in the city by becoming a rector at the university and contested it again in 1857 defeating another liberal with 56% of the vote and thereafter he was unopposed in elections.
In 1835 he was a founder member of the Royal Statistical Society and rose to become its President in 1863 the first non-aristocrat to hold the position. In 1863 Palmerston commissioned him to examine the relative costs of the British and French armies. William's studies disclosed the uncomfortable truth that the British soldier was twice as costly to maintain.
He died a sitting MP aged 82 in 1872.
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