William Holland, 1st Baron Rotherham

William Henry Holland, 1st Baron Rotherham (15 December 1849 – 26 December 1927) was a British industrialist and Liberal politician. He was the second son of William Holland, a cotton spinner of Higher Broughton, near Manchester. In 1872 he became a partner in the family business Messrs William Holland and Sons. He became prominent in the industry, becoming chairman or president of the Fine Cotton Spinners and Doublers Association, the Textile Institute, the Machinery Users' Association and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

He became involved in liberal politics, and for ten years was an alderman on Manchester City Council. In the 1892 general election he stood as member of parliament for Salford North, winning the seat from the Conservatives by a narrow majority. In the 1895 general election the situation was reversed, when he lost the seat by six votes to the Conservative candidate, Frederick Platt-Higgins.

Holland returned to the Commons in 1899, when he won a by-election at Rotherham caused by the resignation of Arthur Acland. He was knighted in 1902 and made a Baronet, of Queen's Gate in the Royal Borough of Kensington in 1907. He was a member of a number of parliamentary and other governmental committees including the Indian Currency Committee, the Advisory Committee on Commercial Intelligence and the Committee on Joint Stock Companies. From 1908 - 1910 was acting Chairman of Ways and Means. He was also a commissioner for the international exhibitions held in Paris in 1900, Milan in 1906 and Brussels in 1910.

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