William Bower Forwood

Sir William Bower Forwood (21 January 1840 – 23 March 1928) was an English merchant, shipowner and politician. He was a wealthy businessman and a local politician in Liverpool who raised money for the building of the Liverpool Overhead Railway and Liverpool Cathedral. This was when the cotton trade was being disrupted by the American Civil War. The brothers made a fortune "first from wartime speculation and blockade running, and then from exploiting telegraph and cotton futures".

The brothers set up offices in New York City, New Orleans and Bombay and ran a small fleet of ships that traded in the West Indies, Costa Rica and New York. William entered politics in 1868 when he was elected to Liverpool Town Council, serving on it for over 40 years, and was a JP for Lancashire from 1882. He was president of the American chamber of commerce in 1872 and of its Liverpool equivalent in 1871 and 1878–81, became president of the Liverpool Cotton Association. and persuaded Andrew Carnegie to give £50,000 towards building new libraries. In 1888 he played an important part in raising money for the building of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, and in 1893 became its first chairman. and was High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1909.

He received the Freedom of the City of Liverpool on 4 June 1902 ″in recognition of the eminent services he has rendered to the municipality throughout his membership of the council, extending over a period of 33 years... and especially for the deep interest he has taken in the establishment of libraries and reeding-rooms in the city". When the sitting mayor William Rutherford stepped down to contest a by-election for the UK Parliament in early 1903, Forwood was asked to serve as mayor of Liverpool for the election campaign. He served a brief period between 10 January and 4 February 1903, when he stepped down and the recently elected MP Rutherford was unanimously re-elected as mayor.

Personal life

Forwood's first marriage was in 1862 to Mary Eleanor née Moss (1841-1896), daughter of William Miles Moss (1809-1871), a Liverpool merchant and shipowner, and Esther (née Johnson; 1809-1876). Forwood and Mary had three sons and seven daughters. Mary died in 1896. In 1898, he married Elizabeth Constant (née Hughes, later Hughes Le Fleming) (1860-1933), the daughter of Major-General George Cumberland Hughes le Fleming and his second wife Anne Jane (née Rennick) of Rydal Hall, Cumbria.

Forwood was a committed Anglican Christian who, as well as raising funds for the construction of Liverpool Cathedral, also developed a lasting relationship with St Martin's Church, Bowness-on-Windermere, where he funded the construction of a War Memorial Chapel in the early 1920s.

He developed an interest in yachting, was commodore of the Mersey and the Windermere yacht clubs, and was co-founder of the Yacht Racing Association. Forwood died at the Belmond Reid's Palace hotel in Funchal, Madeira. He was buried in Windermere Cemetery, Rayrigg Road in Windermere. His estate amounted to a little more than £356,000 (£ as of ).