William Davison, 1st Baron Broughshane

Davison was born in Broughshane, County Antrim, the son of Richard Davison and his wife Annie née Patrick. He was educated at Shrewsbury and graduated from Keble College, Oxford, in 1895 with a Bachelor of Arts. In 1895, he was admitted to the Inner Temple as a barrister and earned his Master of Arts from Keble three years later in 1898. The same year, he married Beatrice Mary Roberts, a daughter of Sir Owen Roberts (and future great-aunt of Anthony Armstrong-Jones), and they later had four children.

In 1913, he became Mayor of Kensington, where he was resident. During the Great War, he was solely responsible for raising, equipping, clothing, housing and selecting the officers for the 22nd 'Kensington battalion' of the Royal Fusiliers. The new volunteer battalion was greeted with great enthusiasm, Davison enthusing their patriotism, encouraging his heroes to great efforts. He was a popular figure in the Royal Borough. In taking the rank of Major, he went with them to train on the Sussex Downs. In 1917, the GOC General Barker wrote, "The 22nd never lost a trench or failed their comrades in the day of battle".[1] For that effort, he was knighted in the 1918 New Year Honours, when he was selected for the seat of Kensington South and elected for the Coupon on 14 December 1918.

Davison was a very active Unionist member in regular attendance at debates. Although an English backbencher, he had spent time in Ireland and took its historical disadvantages very seriously. In 1919, he supported the police application to the Coalition government for extra taxes, pay and pension arrangements in that troubled province. As well as the armed services, he promoted pensions for millions of servicemen and women after demobilisation. He called on the government to give more transparent explanations as to the cost of its taxation demands and early on was one of the MPs behind a deposit system towards responsible candidate selection at election time. Davison commented widely on industrial matters and pointied out that he was neither a miner nor an owner. His truly impartial position, in his opinion, was supporting "improved conditions" and a decent standard of living for miners and a fair price for coal.[2] Fairness extended for him also to bacon and butter for the Irish people in the midst of a war against Britain and also towards the defeated Germans, who should not, in his opinion, have lost so much in reparations. Davison believed in free trade, commodification and price reduction of items like tobacco. In one speech, he linked "high prices resulting in national unrest"[3] to the need for increased industrial production.

Davison did much for the conservation of the Royal Borough. In Prliament, he spoke against demolition of listed buildings by the council.[4]

In 1930, after he had been for decades a Unionist, he became Conservative.

During the war, he was a loyal friend to Winston Churchill and defended the Prime Minister when the Conservatives were verbally attacked in the Commons by truculent Labour left-wingers.[5] From the very outset, Davison had pressed Neville Chamberlain to take prompt action against the British Union of Fascists' leader, Oswald Mosley.[6] Davison stood up for the poor in war-torn London and asked for workmen's dwellings to be exempt from being taxed by the War Damage Contribution. Observing in one debate that in his constituency there was a "notable lack of panic."[7]

He married Beatrice, daughter of Sir Owen Roberts of Henley Park and Plas Dinas in 1898. They had two sons later to inherit the title, and two daughters. In 1929, he divorced his wife and remarried on 6 June to Louisa Mary Constance, daughter of Major Charles Marriott.

On 19 September 1945, Davison resigned his seat by being raised to the peerage as Baron Broughshane of Kensington in the County of London shortly after the general election..[8] In the subsequent by-election, the Conservative candidate held on to the constituency.

Lord Broughshane was a Freeman of the City of London and a wartime Master of the Clothworkers Company. He died in 1953.

Coat of arms of William Davison, 1st Baron Broughshane

Crest Upon a billet fesswise a stag’s head between two wings Or. Escutcheon Gules a stag trippant and in chief a celestial crown and a fleur-de-lys Or. Supporters On either side a stag Or gorged with a chain gules and pendent therefrom a torteau the dexter charged with a portcullis and the sinister with a grenade fired Or. Motto Virtus In Actione Consistit (Strength Consists In Action) [9]

• William Davison, 1st Baron Broughshane at Find a Grave
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by William Davison