Arms: Sable a lion rampant Argent armed and langued Gules debruised of a fess Or charged of three bees volant proper.
SOURCE/NOTES & CREDITS: Blazon and the illustration for background is from the Wikipedia article. Blazon re-written by John H. Gaylor. Text is adapted from the Wikipedia article and Debrett’s Baronetage of 1904.
It has been indicated to me that it looked as if the lion was shouting for help as he was being attacked by the bees.
William Thomas Lewis, 1st Baron Merthyr GCVO JP DL, known as Sir William Lewis, 1st Baronet, from 1896 to 1911, was a Welsh coal mining magnate.
Lewis was born on 5 Aug 1837 in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, the second son of Thomas William Lewis, an engineer at Plymouth, and his wife Mary Anne. He was educated at a local school until the age of thirteen when he was apprenticed to his father as an engineer.
In 1855 Lewis was appointed as an assistant to W. S. Clark, the chief mining engineer of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute (1847–1900). He spent ten years in that post before succeeding Clark in 1864.
He became General Manager of the 3rd Marquess of Bute’s ( Who was then the richest man in the UK) Welch Estates, Docks, Collieries and Railways, etc. He was a successful manager and as he was verra good at this, the Marquess of Bute recommended him for honours repeatedly.
Lewis was very intelligent and used his money and pay to build his own industries in Wales in addition to those of the Marquess…
He was Knighted in 1885 and created a Baronet in 1896. Lord Bute died in 1900 but now Lewis was an important man in Wales in his own right. In 1907 he was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victoria Order (KCVO) And in 1911 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Merthyr, of Senghenydd in the County of Glamorgan, Wales.
In 1912 he was promoted Knight Grand Cross (GCVO)
His wife Lady Lewis died in 2 Oct 1902 and Lord Merthyr died in August 1914, aged 77, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son Herbert.
The peerage is extant yet in the person of David Trevor Lewis, 5th Baron Merthyr (born 1977). And the heir presumptive is the present holder’s uncle, Peter Herbert Lewis (born 1937).
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor.
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