Sir Sydney Waterlow, 1st Baronet

Who was Sir Sydney Waterlow, 1st Baronet?

Sir Sydney Hedley Waterlow, 1st Baronet, KCVO was an English philanthropist and politician, principally remembered for donating Waterlow Park to the public as "a garden for the gardenless".

He was born in Finsbury and brought up in Mile End. Educated at St Saviour's Grammar School, he was apprenticed to a stationer and printer and worked in the family firm of Waterlow & Sons Ltd, a large printing company employing over two thousand people. From that he moved into finance and became a director of the Union Bank of London.

He was a Commissioner at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and a juror at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867 for which he was knighted.

He started his political career as a Councillor in 1857. In 1863 he became an Alderman and began his philanthropic works. He was chairman of the philanthropic housing company The Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, which built the Leopold Buildings amongst others. He also worked for many other charities. He was a Sheriff of the City of London in 1866 and Lord Mayor of London from 1872–1873, and was created a Baronet on 4 August 1873.