Tribute to ‘last grandee of the wool industry’ Sir William Bulmer (From Craven Herald)
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Tribute to ‘last grandee of the wool industry’ Sir William Bulmer
7:00am Friday 1st February 2013 in News
Tribute has been paid to a former Malhamdale man, Sir William Bulmer, who has died in Jersey aged 92.
The former wool textile industry leader and Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire lived in Hanlith for a number of years before moving to the Channel Islands.
He chaired two Bradford-based trade bodies, the National Wool Textile Export Corporation (NWTEC) and the Wool Textile Delegation, and was a founder of the British Textile Confederation.
He was a strong advocate of British membership of the then European Economic Community (now the European Union) at the time of the 1975 referendum.
John Lambert, a former NWTEC and Wool Textile Delegation official, said: “It is probably true to say he was the last real grandee of the industry, with an aura about him that impressed many people.”
Sir William saw war service with the Royal Artillery and was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was captured in 1942, but escaped from a PoW camp.
He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and at Bradford Technical College. Sir William became managing director of Bulmer & Lumb at Buttershaw in 1963 and retired in 1985. He was knighted in 1974 for services to wool textiles.
