William Wallace Archive

Records of William Wallace, comprising records relating to Rowntree & Co Ltd, c 1920-1985; Ministry of Food, 1937-1966; Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance Ltd/War Time Associations, 1940-1968; Industrial Co-partnership Association, 1920-1969; Restrictive Practices Court, 1942-1970; University of York, 1954-1966; Oxford Conferences and industrial management, 1920-1966; Liberal Party/unemployment, [1920s]-1968; J.T. Dove Pensions Trust, 1955-1959; correspondence and ephemera, c 1907-1972; publications and lectures, 1917-1969; and unpublished autobiography, 1913-1972.

William Wallace was born at Sunderland on 10 May 1891, the eldest son of shipping solicitor James Wallace and his wife Alice Donkin. Educated at Argyle House School, he left at the age of 16 to be articled to his father, qualifying as a solicitor in 1912.
He initially worked for a legal firm in London where his growing interest in social and economic problems led him to offer free legal advice to the poor at Mansfield House Settlement in Canning Town. It was at this time that he joined the Fabian Society and began corresponding with similarly minded individuals such as Ramsay Macdonald and H. G. Wells.
In February 1914 Wallace wrote to Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, then Labour Director at the Cocoa Works in York, to ask his advice on becoming more actively involved in social reform. He had been inspired by reading Rowntree’s influential book ‘Poverty: A Study of Town Life’, the result of an in-depth study of poverty in York. As a result of the letter he was invited to visit Rowntree at his home, and in 1917 was invited to work for the new Reconstruction Committee, later the Ministry of Reconstruction, established by Rowntree’s friend, Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Wallace worked at the ministry until 1919. It was during this period that he met his wife, Nancie Hancox, and the couple married in June 1918.
The ministry closed in 1919 and later that same year Rowntree offered Wallace a job at the Cocoa Works, with responsibility for researching ‘co-partnership’ and the possibility of introducing a profit sharing scheme to the business. Wallace carried out a lengthy investigation into experiences of profit sharing in businesses in the British Empire and the USA. His favourable report was approved by the Rowntree Board in 1922 and a formal profit sharing scheme was launched the following year.
As personal assistant to Rowntree as Labour Director, Wallace oversaw a number of innovative schemes in the 1920s similarly aimed at improving the welfare and productivity of the workforce and democratising the business. These included a supplementary unemployment benefit scheme, a Works Psychologist, a Central Works Council on which both management and workforce were fully represented (Wallace was a member from 1919 until 1957), an appeals committee, and educational classes for staff. Wallace personally delivered classes on the ‘economics of industry’ when a suitable lecturer could not be found.
In 1923 Wallace was asked to run the Business and Economic Research Department and in 1924 he formed the Business Research and Management Association with friends, later the British Institute of Management. As a Rowntree representative he was also active in the informal Astor/Rowntree group - the ‘Committee on the Distribution of the Product of Industry,’ and the Management Research Group founded by Rowntree in 1927. In 1926 Wallace published ‘Business Forecasting and its Practical Application’.
His work with Rowntree frequently involved him directly in political life. At the request of Lloyd George, Wallace drafted a report on unemployment for the Liberal Industrial Enquiry which was used in the Liberal Party’s 1928 publication, ‘Britain’s Industrial Future.’ He was also instrumental in the development of the Party’s 1929 manifesto ‘We Can Conquer Unemployment,’ working as part of a group that included Rowntree, Maynard Keynes and Hubert Henderson, although it was Wallace himself who wrote the final draft. The finished pamphlet was published in March 1929 with a foreword by Lloyd George (who was widely assumed to be its author) and sold 340,000 copies.
In 1929 Wallace was appointed Company Secretary at Rowntree’s. In 1931 he was promoted to a new ‘York Board’ of directors created to run the York business, under the authority of the main Company Board. His work brought him into close contract with John Bowes Morrell, then Finance Director and Deputy Chairman of the company with responsibility for associated companies overseas. Wallace made a number of trips to the USA and Canada with Morrell, and in 1938 succeeded him in holding responsibility for all overseas companies.
In 1940 Wallace was asked to act as an Industrial Advisor to the Ministry of Food, then tasked with the adequate provision of food resources to wartime Britain. His title was soon changed to Director for Cocoa, Chocolate and Sugar Confectionary, and he remained in the post, and on leave from Rowntree’s, for four years.
In 1944 Wallace returned to Rowntree’s where he was promoted to Deputy Chairman with responsibility for all associated companies at home and overseas. In 1950 he was elected to the Grand Council of the Federation of British Industries and in 1951 he was elected President of the Cocoa/Chocolate and Confectionary Alliance.
The following year, George Harris retired through ill health and Wallace succeeded him as Chairman of Rowntrees. He remained in the post until 1957 when he retired and subsequently became a lay member of the new Restrictive Practices Court until 1960. He was also actively involved in the campaign to found a university in York as a member of the York Academic Trust and later the York University Promotion Committee, alongside his friend and ex-colleague John Bowes Morrell. The University of York opened in 1963 and included an Institute of Social and Economic Research personally championed by Wallace.
William Wallace died at York in 1976.

The archive was previously held by William Wallace's family who sorted through the material and made notes on files as to context and provenance before it arrived at the Borthwick c 1993. Upon arrival at the Borthwick, the material was further divided into two, with the bulk of the records relating to Wallace's Rowntree career placed with the company archive and the remainder archived as a separate fonds. 18 boxes of this non-company material were then catalogued and referenced, although no version of this catalogue now survives. A further 16 boxes remained uncatalogued at this time. These boxes were listed by S.A. Shearn in 2023, along with the boxes for which no catalogue now survives. The arrangement was revised and the full catalogue was then uploaded to Borthcat.

Records are open to the public, subject to the overriding provisions of relevant legislation, including data protection laws. 24 hours' notice is required to access photographic material.
Files WW/9/1/4 and WW/9/1/15 are closed until 2027 at the request of the family.

The archive was transferred by the family of William Wallace c 1993.

William Wallace was born at Sunderland on 10 May 1891, the eldest son of shipping solicitor James Wallace and his wife Alice Donkin. Educated at Argyle House School, he left at the age of 16 to be articled to his father, qualifying as a solicitor in 1912.
He initially worked for a legal firm in London where his growing interest in social and economic problems led him to offer free legal advice to the poor at Mansfield House Settlement in Canning Town. It was at this time that he joined the Fabian Society and began corresponding with similarly minded individuals such as Ramsay Macdonald and H. G. Wells.
In February 1914 Wallace wrote to Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, then Labour Director at the Cocoa Works in York, to ask his advice on becoming more actively involved in social reform. He had been inspired by reading Rowntree’s influential book ‘Poverty: A Study of Town Life’, the result of an in-depth study of poverty in York. As a result of the letter he was invited to visit Rowntree at his home, and in 1917 was invited to work for the new Reconstruction Committee, later the Ministry of Reconstruction, established by Rowntree’s friend, Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Wallace worked at the ministry until 1919. It was during this period that he met his wife, Nancie Hancox, and the couple married in June 1918.
The ministry closed in 1919 and later that same year Rowntree offered Wallace a job at the Cocoa Works, with responsibility for researching ‘co-partnership’ and the possibility of introducing a profit sharing scheme to the business. Wallace carried out a lengthy investigation into experiences of profit sharing in businesses in the British Empire and the USA. His favourable report was approved by the Rowntree Board in 1922 and a formal profit sharing scheme was launched the following year.
As personal assistant to Rowntree as Labour Director, Wallace oversaw a number of innovative schemes in the 1920s similarly aimed at improving the welfare and productivity of the workforce and democratising the business. These included a supplementary unemployment benefit scheme, a Works Psychologist, a Central Works Council on which both management and workforce were fully represented (Wallace was a member from 1919 until 1957), an appeals committee, and educational classes for staff. Wallace personally delivered classes on the ‘economics of industry’ when a suitable lecturer could not be found.
In 1923 Wallace was asked to run the Business and Economic Research Department and in 1924 he formed the Business Research and Management Association with friends, later the British Institute of Management. As a Rowntree representative he was also active in the informal Astor/Rowntree group - the ‘Committee on the Distribution of the Product of Industry,’ and the Management Research Group founded by Rowntree in 1927. In 1926 Wallace published ‘Business Forecasting and its Practical Application’.
His work with Rowntree frequently involved him directly in political life. At the request of Lloyd George, Wallace drafted a report on unemployment for the Liberal Industrial Enquiry which was used in the Liberal Party’s 1928 publication, ‘Britain’s Industrial Future.’ He was also instrumental in the development of the Party’s 1929 manifesto ‘We Can Conquer Unemployment,’ working as part of a group that included Rowntree, Maynard Keynes and Hubert Henderson, although it was Wallace himself who wrote the final draft. The finished pamphlet was published in March 1929 with a foreword by Lloyd George (who was widely assumed to be its author) and sold 340,000 copies.
In 1929 Wallace was appointed Company Secretary at Rowntree’s. In 1931 he was promoted to a new ‘York Board’ of directors created to run the York business, under the authority of the main Company Board. His work brought him into close contract with John Bowes Morrell, then Finance Director and Deputy Chairman of the company with responsibility for associated companies overseas. Wallace made a number of trips to the USA and Canada with Morrell, and in 1938 succeeded him in holding responsibility for all overseas companies.
In 1940 Wallace was asked to act as an Industrial Advisor to the Ministry of Food, then tasked with the adequate provision of food resources to wartime Britain. His title was soon changed to Director for Cocoa, Chocolate and Sugar Confectionary, and he remained in the post, and on leave from Rowntree’s, for four years.
In 1944 Wallace returned to Rowntree’s where he was promoted to Deputy Chairman with responsibility for all associated companies at home and overseas. In 1950 he was elected to the Grand Council of the Federation of British Industries and in 1951 he was elected President of the Cocoa/Chocolate and Confectionary Alliance.
The following year, George Harris retired through ill health and Wallace succeeded him as Chairman of Rowntrees. He remained in the post until 1957 when he retired and subsequently became a lay member of the new Restrictive Practices Court until 1960. He was also actively involved in the campaign to found a university in York as a member of the York Academic Trust and later the York University Promotion Committee, alongside his friend and ex-colleague John Bowes Morrell. The University of York opened in 1963 and included an Institute of Social and Economic Research personally championed by Wallace.
William Wallace died at York in 1976.

This archive has been catalogued.

Created by S.A. Shearn, 10.10.2023

A reprographics service is available to researchers subject to the access restrictions outlined above. Copying will not be undertaken if there is any risk of damage to the document. Copies are supplied in accordance with the Borthwick Institute for Archives' terms and conditions for the supply of copies, and under provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Permission to reproduce images of documents in the custody of the Borthwick Institute must be sought.

A small number of duplicates were destroyed.

The archive was previously held by William Wallace's family who sorted through the material and made notes on files as to context and provenance. It was then partially catalogued by Judy Burg in the 1990s. A further uncatalogued section of the archive was listed and arranged by S.A. Shearn in 2023.

Further accruals are not expected.

Further records of William Wallace which were deposited at the Borthwick through the Joseph Rowntree Foundation can be found at WW93. There are also records relating to Wallace's work with the Rowntree Company in the archive of Rowntree & Co Ltd, see: R/B3/WW and R/B4/WW; and with the Rowntree Trusts, see: JRRT/2/1/3/9 and JRF/2/1/3/1. Finally there are letters relating to Wallace's work with Seebohm Rowntree in the Rowntree Family Papers, see: RFAM/BSR/JRF/4/3/13.
A copy of Wallace's unpublished autobiography can be found in the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Archive [JRRT/8/2/54].

Published

GB 193