Sir George Wills

Sir George Wills was born into the Bristol tobacco dynasty in 1854. His role was crucial in transforming what was a prosperous, if parochial, Bristol tobacco manufacturer into a global multinational, making the Wills family enormously rich in the process.

He joined the business at eighteen and three years later was appointed factory manager. Wills was instrumental in persuading older and more conservative family members to buy a patent in 1883, for the Bonsack cigarette-making machine in Paris. The £4,000 cost of an exclusive patent was one of the bargains of industrial history. It enabled Wills to launch the cheap Woodbine label at 1 d for five cigarettes, which helped create a mass market. He later played a leading role in the creation of Imperial Tobacco, which was a response by the British tobacco industry at the turn of the century to an aggressive push into the British market by the American Tobacco Company.

In 1911, Wills took over the chairmanship of Imperial, a post he held until 1924. He died four years later, leaving £10m in his will. Before his death, he had lavished large endowments on Bristol University.

His wealth represented around 0.24% of the then £4.15bn net national income. Today's equivalent would be over £2.6bn.