1034 William Jacks

Constituency  : Leith  Burghs  1885-6,  Stirlingshire  1892-5

William  took  over  from  Andrew  Grant  at  Leith  Burghs.

William  was  a  farmer's  son  from  Northumberland. He  was  educated  locally  and  then  apprenticed  to  a  shipyard. He  studied  foreign  languages  in  his  spare  time.  He  became  manager  of  Sunderland  and  Seaham  Engine  Works  and  was  sent  on  international  errands. In  1880  he founded  the  iron  and  steel  merchants  firm  William  Jacks  &  Co. In  1885  he  took  as  a  junior  partner  the  future  Conservative  prime  minister  Andrew  Bonar  Law.


William  joined  the  Liberal  Unionists  in  1886  despite  being  in  favour  of  home  rule  for  Scotland. Because  Gladstone  was  not  sure  of  getting  re-elected  in  Midlothian  that  year  he  stood  for  Leith  as  well  as  an  insurance  policy , the  so-called  "Leith  dirty  trick ". William  declined  to  stand  against  him  and  Gladstone  was  unopposed. When  Gladstone  decided  to  represent  Midlothian  instead   William  stood  again  in  the  by-election  but  came  third  behind  Ronald  Ferguson  and   an  Independent  Liberal  Unionist.

By  1892  William  was  reconciled  with  his  former  party  and  won  in  Stirlingshire. He  was  defeated  in  1895.

William  pressed  Mundella  at  the  Board  of  Trade  to  do  something  about  the  exorbitant  rail  rates  in  1892.

In  1893  William  was  elected  Chairman  of  the  British  Iron  Trade  Association. He  later  became  President  of  the  Glasgow  Chamber  of  Commerce.

William  became  a  man  of  letters, publishing  a  translation  of  Lessing's  Nathan  the  Wise  in  1894.  He  later  wrote  biographies  of  Bismarck  and  Kaiser  Wilhelm II  and  the  inventor  James  Watt.

In  1898  William  chaired  a  public  meeting  in  support  of  a  memorial  to  William  Wallace  at  Stirling.

He  died  in  1907  aged  66,  leaving  a  large  collection  of  books  to  Glasgow  University  Library.