Henry Wilson-Fox FRGS (18 August 1863 – 22 November 1921) was an English lawyer, journalist, tennis player, and businessman. He built his career in Rhodesia, where he became an associate of Cecil Rhodes, manager of the British South Africa Company, and an advocate of Rhodes's imperialist ideals.
In 1916 Wilson-Fox was a founder of the Empire Resources Development Committee, which promoted the idea of state-managed commercial development of the British Empire. He was elected in 1917 as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamworth. In the House of Commons, he focused on finance and imperial development until his death in 1921.
Early life and family
The son of Wilson Fox, physician to Queen Victoria, he was educated at Charterhouse, Marlborough College, University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. Wilson-Fox was an exhibitioner and scholar at Trinity, where he graduated with a BA in natural sciences. He represented Cambridge University at lawn tennis in 1885–86, and thereafter made tennis and golf his main recreations.
Wilson-Fox was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1888, having been an equity scholar.
In 1898 he married the Hon. Eleanor Birch Sclater-Booth, daughter of the 1st Baron Basing.
Career
Africa
Wilson-Fox moved to Johannesburg in 1889, where he became editor of the South African Mining Journal in 1892. He worked with John Hays Hammond to help draft the Rhodesian mining laws, which brought him in contact with Cecil Rhodes, leading to his appointment in 1894 as public prosecutor in Rhodesia.
During the Second Matabele War in 1896, when the Ndebele rose up against white settlers and laid siege to Bulawayo, Cecil Rhodes led a relief column from Salisbury to Bulawayo, with Wilson-Fox as his transport and commissariat officer. In 1897, he undertook the same role during the Mashonaland rebellion. He was mentioned in despatches and received a medal with clasp.
Wilson-Fox returned to England for a holiday in May 1897, when he was offered the role of manager of the British South Africa Company (BSAC). The BSAC was a chartered company which administered Southern Rhodesia, North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe, and the two northern zones were merged in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia, which achieved independence in 1964 as Zambia. BSAC's role in the Jameson Raid and the Matabele Wars, along with its manipulation of share prices, made it the best-known charter company.
He took up the post the following year, aged 35. He dealt mostly with the commercial aspects of the company, and served on the boards of many of the biggest companies in Rhodesia. He joined the BSAC's board of directors in 1913, and was also a director of the Charter Trust and Agency, which had been spun off from the BSAC in 1902. By 1921 the Charter Trust owned over acres in Rhodesia. Other directorships included the Mashonaland Railway Company, Rhodesia Railways, Trust and Agency Assets, the Wankie Colliery Company, and Willoughbys Consolidated Company.
He established a reputation as a good public speaker, and as a fervent supporter of the imperialistic ideals of Cecil Rhodes. He was a fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute, the Royal Statistical Society, and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). In 1918 he became a vice-president of the RGS.
Wilson-Fox was also a periodic writer of letters to the editor of The Times newspaper. In 1912 he suggested that collisions between submarines could be avoided if "the example of the whale should be followed, and that by means of a small pump a spout of spray should be discharged into the air at regular intervals". In 1916 he proposed that domestic manufacturing industries—especially small and new ones—should be offered special protection by the state, in return for paying their workers a minimum wage and sharing profits with the state.
Empire development
In late September 1916, under the heading "Finance after the war", The Times published two articles by Wilson-Fox. The first article was "The need for new methods", in which he warned against attempts to pay off the war debt too quickly. He proposed that the state should instead cut taxation, and increase borrowing to invest in economic growth. In the second article "A board of development", he proposed the creation of a Board of Imperial Development which would invest in schemes anywhere in the British Empire which did not compete with existing commercial ventures and promised a return on investment of at least 10% per annum. The first of the two articles was accompanied by an editorial in which The Times supported the broad outline of his proposals.