William Woodall

William Woodall (Shrewsbury 15 March 1832 – Llandudno 8 April 1901), was a British Liberal politician, philanthropist and supporter of women's suffrage. Life He was the elder son of William Woodall, of Shrewsbury, and his wife Martha (née Basson). He was educated at the Crescent Congregational Schools, Liverpool. He thereafter trained as a gas engineer at the works of the Liverpool Gas Company. By 1857 he had become a gasworks manager for the Burslem and Tunstall Gas Company and, since the company never actually operated in Tunstall, this works must have been in Burslem. Woodall married Evelyn, daughter of Burslem china manufacturer James Macintyre, in 1862. They lived at Longport in the 1860s, where Woodall was a Sunday School teacher. Woodall was later taken into a business partnership by his father-in-law, who operated a china works at the Washington Works at Burslem. Woodall became a senior partner in the firm, after James Macintyre's death in December 1868. William and his wife Evelyn had no children. Evelyn died in 1870, just two years after her father's death. Woodall remained a widower until his death. Apart from his early business career in Burslem he was also: Chairman of the Burslem School Board from 1868 to 1880; Secretary of the Wedgwood Institute Committee during the time of its building and opening; and served as Chairman of the North Staffordshire Society for Promotion of the Welfare of the Deaf and Dumb.