James Darcy Lever

Who was James Darcy Lever?

James Darcy Lever was the co-founder, with his brother William Hesketh Lever, of Lever Brothers, the company that became Unilever. However, due to illness, he played little part in running the business.

He was born in Bolton, the son of James Lever and Eliza Hesketh of Wood Street. The brothers established a business with the chemist William Hough Watson, inventor of a new soap-making process, in Warrington and then at Port Sunlight on the Wirral.

James Lever married Annie Kershaw on 26 April 1882 and, with other family members moved to Thornton Hough, 4 miles from Port Sunlight, after 1884. James Lever never took a major part in running the business. He fell ill in 1895, probably as a result of diabetes, and resigned his directorship two years later. A biography by Adam Macqueen suggests his symptoms, before the discovery of insulin, may have been mistaken for mental instability.

He died at Thornton Hough in 1910. A memorial window designed by H.Gustave Hiller of Liverpool was installed in the north transept at All Saints Church, Thornton Hough. The window was a gift from his widow and niece, Mary Ethel Dean, in 1912.