Lord Nuffield
Lord Nuffield in one of his affordable Morris cars
© by kind permission of the Warden and Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford
- Name:
- William Morris (1877-1963)
- Job:
- Philanthropist, car manufacturer
- Location:
- Nuffield Place
- 1877 William Morris is born. He is raised in a modest terraced house in Cowley, Oxfordshire.
- 1893 William starts a bicycle repair business in the shed at the bottom of his father’s garden.
- 1903 He marries Elizabeth Maud Anstey. They were inseparable until her death in 1959.
- 1912 Designs his first car, the Morris Oxford, later known as the Bullnose Morris, at his garage in Oxford. Production soon moves to a disused military training college in Cowley.
- 1914 During the First World War, William’s car factory produces munitions for the war effort.
- 1929 He becomes Sir William Morris, then Lord Nuffield in 1934.
- 1933 He and Elizabeth move into Nuffield Place, near Henley-on-Thames, where he lives for the rest of his life.
- 1937 Morris Motors Ltd. becomes the largest motor manufacturer in Europe.
- 1943 The Nuffield Foundation is founded with a gift of £10 million. Over his lifetime, he gives away the equivalent in today’s money of £11 billion.
- 1945 In the Second World War, the Morris motor works manufacture Spitfires and Tiger Moths.
- 1963 On his death he gifts Nuffield Place to Nuffield College.
Spring 2012 With your help we plan to open William Morris’s home to the public.