thumbnail|right|250px|William Lever, vicomte de Leverhulme
'''William Lever''' ou '''William Hesketh Lever''', (19 septembre 1851 — 7 mai 1925), fut un industriel britannique qui fut nommé 1 vicomte de Leverhulme. Il est connu dans le monde anglo-saxon sous le nom de '''Lord Leverhulme'''. Fondateur d'une fabrique de savon, ''Lever Brothers'' (devenue Unilever), ce très riche industriel a été également membre du parlement britannique.

==Un self-made-man==

William Lever est né à Bolton, au Lancashire en 1851, et étudia au Bolton Church Institute. Dès 16 ans, il emballe des morceaux de savon dans la boutique de son père, puis les vend dans les villages alentours. 

Il achète ensuite une épicerie et avec les bénéfices issus de l'importation de beurre et d’œufs d'Irlande, achète avec son frère James en 1886 une fabrique de savon à Warrington, qui devient ''Lever Brothers''. Elle fut une des premières entreprises à produire du savon à partir d'huile végétale, ce qui assura le développement du groupe. 

Il réorganise la production et la commercialisation, et développe le marketing pour vendre ses produits : emballages attirants, noms commerciaux (''Sunlight Soap'', savon au rayon de soleil).

== Patron paternaliste ==

250px|thumb|Un bâtiment de Port Sunlight|leftPour installer sa nouvelle usine, William Lever achète en 1888 un vaste terrain près de ville industrielle modèle, Port Sunlight, en 1889. Érigée par Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928), elle comptera jusqu'à 6000 habitants en 1924, avec des maisons individuelles, une école, une bibliothèque, des jardins et terrains de sports. Il était inspiré, entre autres, par le village modèle de Prices Patent Candles vers 1853.

Intéressé par l'architecture et l'urbanisme, William Lever a aussi construit une maison à Thornton Hough.

Paternaliste, William Lever versait des salaires élevés, et ses employés bénéficiaient d’une participation aux profits et d’une assurance-vie prise en charge par l’entreprise. Mais le syndicalisme n’était pas autorisé, et William Lever surveillait ses ouvriers depuis une passerelle dominant le grand hall de l’usine. 

Son activité se développe avec constance ; par concentration horizontale, puisque William Lever rachète une quinzaine de savonneries et par la création en 1898 de la Lever Brothers Compagny, et par concentration verticale, avec des acquisitions en Afrique et aux Philippines, où il fait exploiter des plantations de palmiers et de cocotiers, puis des huileries. Il se diversifie également dans des pêcheries de baleines au nord de l’Ecosse, et dans la production de margarine. 

==Des liens étroits avec le  Congo==
William Lever est connu dans le monde francophone pour ses activités de huilerie en Belgique et au Congo belge. Celles-ci donneront le principal essor aux activités industrielles de William Lever. 

thumb|William Lever|220px|right '''William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme''' (English Industrialist, philanthropist and colonialist.

== Life ==

William Lever was born in 1851, in Bolton, Lancashire, England, and educated at the Bolton Church Institute. After training with his father's wholesale grocery business, in 1886 he established a soap manufacturing company called Lever Brothers (now part of Unilever) with his brother James. It was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and in conjunction with Lever's business acumen and marketing practices, produced a great fortune. James Lever never took a major part in running the business. A recent biography by Adam Macqueen suggests that James suffered from diabetes throughout his life, and that perhaps his symptoms (prior to the discovery of insulin and effective treatment of the condition) were mistaken for mental instability <ref>Adam Macqueen, "The King of Sunlight: How William Lever Cleaned Up The World, Corgi 2005, PP 146-149 </ref>

From 1888, Lever began to put his philanthropic principles into practice through the construction of Port Sunlight, a model community designed to house and support the workers of Lever Brothers, who already enjoyed generous wages and innovative benefits. Lever's philanthropy had definite paternalistic overtones, and life in Port Sunlight included intrusive rules and implied mandatory participation in activities. With accommodation tied to employment, a worker losing his or her job could be almost simultaneously evicted. Nonetheless, conditions, pay, hours, and benefits far exceeded those prevailing in similar industries.

In the early 1900s, Lever was using palm oil produced in the British West African colonies. When he found difficulties in obtaining more palm plantation concessions, he started looking elsewhere in other colonies. In 1911, Lever visited the Belgian Congo to take advantage of cheap labour and palm oil concessions in that country. Lever's attitudes towards the Congolese were paternalistic and racist, and his negotiations with the Belgian coloniser to enforce the system known as ''travail forcé'' (forced labor) are well documented. As such, he participated in this system of formalised labour. The archives show a record of Belgian administrators, missionaries and doctors protesting against the practices at the Lever plantations. Formal parliamentary investigations were called for by members of the Belgian Socialist Party, but despite their work, the practise of forced labor continued until independence in 1960.<ref>Jules Marechal, "Travail forcé pour l’huile de palme de Lord Leverhulme  L’Histoire du Congo 1910-1945". Part III. Editions Paula Bellings. pp.348-368. </ref> 

250px|thumb|The Pigeon Tower. One of the many structures that Lever had built in Rivington. Lever lived in the Rivington area of Bolton for many years.  In 1913, his house there was destroyed by suffragette Edith Rigby &mdash; ironically, as he was in favour women's suffrage.  He had a large mansion created to replace this original home, and turned a large portion of the grounds over to the town of Bolton as a public park, including a small zoo stocked with emu, yaks, zebra, wallabies and a lion cub. His own Japanese-style garden, based on the design of the willow-patterned plate, included a lake complete with its own flock of flamingos. Each of his houses was equipped with an open-air bedroom, in which, following his wife Elizabeth's death in 1913, he frequently slept with only a small glass canopy to protect his bed from the elements.

Lever was a lifelong supporter of Liberal cause, and was often called upon to contest elections for the Liberal Party.  He served as Wirral constituency between 1906 and 1909, using his maiden speech to the House of Commons to urge Henry Campbell-Bannerman's government to introduce a national old age pension, as he already provided for his own workers. He was High Sheriff of Lancaster in 1917 and Mayor of Bolton in 1918.

thumb|left|William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, portraited by [[William Strang, 1918]] Lord Leverhulme is remembered as a philanthropist. Port Sunlight is now the home of the Hall i' th' Wood (Samuel Crompton's birthplace) and donated it to the town. He made many donations to Bolton School and wanted to completely redesign Bolton town centre but his offer was not accepted by the council.

In Stornoway an industrial town and building a fish cannery, his intentions were received badly by the islanders. He gave Lewis to its people in 1923, and concentrated his efforts on Harris, where the town Leverburgh takes his name.