| Honorific-Prefix: | Sir |
| William Henry Houldsworth | |
| Birth Date: | 20 August 1834 |
| Birth Place: | Ardwick, Manchester, England |
| Death Place: | Kilmarnock, Scotland |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Spouse: | Elisabeth Graham Crum |
| Children: | 6 |
Sir William Henry Houldsworth, 1st Baronet (20 August 1834 – 18 April 1917) was a British mill-owner in Reddish, Lancashire. He was Conservative MP for Manchester North West from 1883 to 1906, and sometime chairman of the Fine Cotton Spinners' Association. He was made a baronet in 1887.
William Henry Houldsworth was born on the 20th of August 1834, as the 4th and youngest son of Henry Houldworth (1797–1868) and Helen Hamilton. Houldworth's mother died while he was very young; while her exact date of death is unknown, his father remarried in 1838. Houldsworth bought farmland by the Stockport Branch Canal in Reddish in the 1860s and built Reddish Mill, then the largest cotton-spinning mill in the world (started 1863, completed 1865). Four members of the Houldsworth family were 60% shareholders in the Reddish Spinning Company Limited which built the North Mill (started 1870) and the Middle Mill (started 1874). An Institute (now Houldsworth working men's club) was completed in 1874. All the above were designed by the architect Abraham Stott. Houldsworth commissioned the architect Alfred Waterhouse to design St. Elisabeth's church, rectory and school. All the above buildings are still standing.
The start of a model village was also laid out, Houldsworth Model Village, with a variety of houses built in front of the mill. Some of the houses have been demolished, but those in Houldsworth Street and Liverpool Street remain.
He was created a baronet in 1887 as Sir William Henry Houldsworth, of Reddish, in the Parish of Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, and of Coodham in the Parish of Symington in the County of Ayr.
The City of Manchester made him a freeman in 1905, and the Victoria University of Manchester awarded him an honorary LLD. In later life, Houldsworth moved away from Reddish and Manchester, and concentrated on his estate, Coodham, Ayrshire in Scotland, where he built a domestic chapel designed by Alfred Waterhouse. [1]
Several features in Reddish are named after Houldsworth. A drinking fountain and four-faced clock, paid for by public subscription, was unveiled in Houldsworth Square on 11 September 1920.
The oldest block of Hulme Hall, Manchester a hall of residence for the University of Manchester which was largely funded in its infancy during the 1870s by Houldsworth, is named after him.
On the 20th of August 1862 in Thornliebank, Houldsworth married Elisabeth Graham Crum, daughter of Walter Crum.
He was a keen golfer and along with the Hon A.J.Balfour (Prime Minister from 1902-5) was instrumental in the establishment of the Balfour and Houldsworth Golf Challenge Cups.[2] Still being played for 126 years later, the two premier trophies, the Balfour Cup and the Houldsworth Trophy are both magnificent examples of Victorian craftsmanship and have few equals in any sport