William Watson-Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong

Who was William Watson-Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong?

William Henry Armstrong Fitzpatrick Watson-Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, DL, Hon. DCL, was a British benefactor.

Born William Watson, he was born at 65 Eccleston Square, London, the son of John William Watson, of Adderstone Hall, Belford, Northumberland, son of Sir William Henry Watson, Baron of the Exchequer, and Anne Armstrong, daughter of William Armstrong, a corn merchant and Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne, whose son William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong was the founder of the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing empire. His mother was Margaret Godman Fitzpatrick, daughter of Patrick Persse Fitzpatrick, of Bognor Regis, Sussex. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1889 he assumed by Royal license the additional surname of Armstrong.

Watson-Armstrong served as a Major in the Northumberland Hussars, was High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1899 and appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland in 1901. In 1900 he succeeded to the vast fortune of his great-uncle, Lord Armstrong.