Sir William Prescott, 1st Baronet

{{Short description|British engineer and Conservative Party politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}

Sir William Henry Prescott, 1st Baronet, CBE, DL (1874 – 15 June 1945) was a British engineer and Conservative Party politician.

The son of John Prescott, he initially studied law and was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1909.{{cite news|title=Obituary: Col. Sir William Prescott, Civil Engineer|date=16 June 1945|work=The Times|page=8}} He subsequently took up a career in civil engineering, acting as a consultant to a number of government committees on water supply and roads.

During the First World War he was commanding officer of 222nd Field Company, Royal Engineers, part of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. He was invalided home to the United Kingdom in 1915.

He was elected at the 1918 general election as Coalition Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenham North. Unusually for a Conservative, he was sponsored by a trade union, the National Association of Local Government Officers, of which he held membership.Alec Spoor, White-collar union, p. 67

{{Election box begin | title=1918 General Election:Tottenham North

Electorate 34,463F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Unionist Party (UK)

|candidate = Maj. William Henry Prescott

|votes = 11,891

|percentage = 62.0

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{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate = Percy Alden

|votes = 7,293

|percentage = 38.0

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{{Election box majority|

|votes = 4,598

|percentage = 24.0

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{{Election box turnout|

|votes =

|percentage = 55.7

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|winner = Unionist Party (UK)

|loser = Liberal Party (UK)

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Prescott stood down at the 1922 election. He was appointed a CBE in 1920 for his role is raising troops in Tottenham{{London Gazette|issue=31840|date=26 March 1920|page=3770|supp=y}} and was knighted in 1921.{{London Gazette|issue=10711|date=30 December 1921|page=3770}} He was also awarded the King Albert Medal by Albert I of Belgium.

A longtime member of Middlesex County Council where he served as an alderman and vice-chairman, he represented the authority on the Metropolitan Water Board (MWB). He was chairman of the MWB from 1928 to 1940, and two massive steam-driven pumping engines at Kempton Park Pumping Station were named "William" and "Bessie" after Prescott and his wife.[http://www.oncom.org.uk/journal/kemptonengine.htm Kempton steam engines] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006092650/http://www.oncom.org.uk/journal/kemptonengine.htm |date=6 October 2007 }} He co-founded the Tottenham War Services Institute in 1920.[https://archive.org/details/1920TWSIDeedOfTrustTranscription1950_201708 Deed of Trust: Tottenham War Services Institute: 12 October 1920] He was appointed in 1924 as a Deputy Lieutenant of Middlesex,London Gazette Issue 32973 published on 12 September 1924. and in 1929 served as High Sheriff of the county.{{London Gazette| issue = 33479 |page=1966 | date = 22 March 1929 }} He was also a member of a number of other committees connected with Middlesex, a member of the Worshipful Company of Paviors and the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass and a Freeman of the City of London.

Prescott retired to Godmanchester in Huntingdonshire. In the King's Birthday Honours 1938, he was honoured for his work with the water board by being made a baronet, of Godmanchester in the county of Huntingdon.London Gazette Issue 34518 published on 7 June 1938. Page 1 of 26 In the same year he served as High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

In 1898 he married Bessie Stanley of Ambleside, and they had four children. He died at his Godmanchester home in June 1945 and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Richard Stanley Prescott. His second son, William Robert Stanley Prescott was MP for Darwen. Another family relative is the actress Sue Johnston.{{Cite web |last=Molyneux |first=Jess |date=2024-10-17 |title=Sue Johnston says 'don't make me cry' after Tory discovery |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/sue-johnston-says-dont-make-30166545 |access-date=2024-10-17 |website=Liverpool Echo |language=en}}