William Piercy, 1st Baron PiercyCBE (7 February 1886 – 7 July 1966) was a British economist, civil servant, businessman and financier. He is best remembered as chairman of the Industrial & Commercial Finance Corporation from 1945 to 1964.
Early life
Piercy was the only son of Edward Piercy, of Hoxton, Middlesex, and his second wife Mary Ann Margaret (née Heaford). His father was killed in an industrial accident in 1893. Piercy was educated locally, but left school at the age of twelve to join Pharaoh Gane, timber brokers, as an office boy. He studied at night and in 1910, aged 24, he became a full-time undergraduate student at the London School of Economics. He graduated B.Sc. in 1914 and was for a time a lecturer in history and public administration at the school.
From 1945 to 1964 Piercy served as chairman of the Industrial & Commercial Finance Corporation, which was set up to provide means to smaller businesses in the United Kingdom. He was also a director of the Bank of England from 1946 to 1956 and chairman of the Wellcome Trust from 1960 to 1965. He also served as President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1954 to 1955.[2] He was a governor of The Peckham Experiment in 1949.[3]
Family
Lord Piercy married, firstly, Mary Louisa, daughter of Thomas Henry William Pelham, in 1915. They had one son and three daughters. After his first wife's death in 1953, he married, secondly, Veronica, daughter of Mrs Ann Warham, in 1964. He died in July 1966, aged 80, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son Nicholas.
Arms
Coat of arms of William Piercy, 1st Baron Piercy
Crest
Issuant from a bezant in front of two spears in saltire points upwards Proper a demi-lion guardant Sable charged on the shoulder with a pierced mullet Argent.
Escutcheon
Per fess indented Gules and Argent in chief three pierced mullets Argent in base a lion rampant guardant Sable.
