William Foot Mitchell Explained

Sir William Foot Mitchell
Office:	Member of Parliament for Dartford
Term Start:	January 1910
Term End:	December 1910
Predecessor:	James Rowlands
Successor:	James Rowlands
Office1:	Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden
Term Start1:	15 November 1922
Term End1:	10 May 1929
Predecessor1:	Sir Cecil Beck
Successor1:	Rab Butler
Birthname:	William Foot Mitchell
Birth Date:	26 June 1859
Birth Place:	London, England, United Kingdom
Death Date:	31 July 1947
Death Place:	Quendon, Essex, England
Party:	Conservative
Spouse:	Elizabeth Hannah Hadley
Children:	Lady Winifred Hadley Foot Mitchell
Relatives:	Algernon Winter Rose (son-in-law), Arthur William Mickle Ellis (son-in-law)

Sir William Foot Mitchell (26 June 1859 – 31 July 1947)^[1] was a Conservative Party politician in England.

Mitchell was Managing Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc, an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company, from 10 March 1903 to 31 December 1938,^[2] including the year that Royal Dutch Petroleum and the Shell Transport and Trading Company came together to form a petroleum company in 1907.^[3]

He spent much of his early career in the East, largely in Japan and China,^[4] before settling in the UK, buying Quendon Hall, Quendon, in 1907.^[5]

Political career

He was elected to the House of Commons at the January 1910 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dartford, beating the sitting Liberal-Labour MP James Rowlands.^[6] However, Rowlands regained the seat at the December 1910 general election.

Mitchell did not contest the 1918 general election, but at the 1922 general election he was elected as MP for Saffron Walden. He held the seat until he stood down at the 1929 general election.^[7]

He was knighted in 1929 by King George V.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Web site: House of Commons constituencies beginning with "S" (part 1) . https://web.archive.org/web/20090810231702/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Scommons1.htm . 10 August 2009 . Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages . usurped . 2009-04-12.
2. Web site: Shell News . https://web.archive.org/web/20150611082631/http://shellnews.net/documents/RoyalDutchShellDirectors.pdf. 11 June 2015 . Royal dutch, General Managing Directors 1890 - 2005. 12 June 2015.
3. Web site: Shell Global . https://web.archive.org/web/20150331024927/http://www.shell.com/global/aboutshell/who-we-are/our-history/the-beginnings.html. 31 March 2015 . the Beginnings. 12 June 2015.
4. Book: Mackenzie , Compton. . Compton Mackenzie

   . Compton Mackenzie . Realms of Silver: One Hundred Years of Banking in the East . 1954 . reprint of 1st . 2006 . Routledge . Oxon . 0-415-37797-8.

5. Web site: Parks & Gardens UK. https://web.archive.org/web/20150612151611/http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/2744/history. 12 June 2015 . Quendon Park, (also known as Quendon Hall), Saffron Walden, England . 12 June 2015.
6. Book: Craig , F. W. S. . F. W. S. Craig

   . F. W. S. Craig . British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 . 1974 . 2nd . 1989 . Parliamentary Research Services . Chichester . 0-900178-27-2 . 303.

7. Book: Craig , F. W. S. . F. W. S. Craig

   . F. W. S. Craig . British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 . 1969 . 3rd . 1983 . Parliamentary Research Services . Chichester . 0-900178-06-X.

8. Web site: The London Gazette, 16 July 1929 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150612144831/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33517/page/4700/data.pdf. 12 June 2015 . Honours . 12 June 2015.