Sir Albert Spicer, 1st Baronet

Who was Sir Albert Spicer, 1st Baronet?

Sir Albert Spicer, 1st Baronet PC was an English businessman and Liberal Party politician.

He was born in Brixton, London, the son of James Spicer D.L. of Alton, Hampshire, a wealthy paper merchant and a well-known congregationalist, and Louisa Edwards, daughter of Evan Edwards and Mary Ann Johnson. He was the sixth child in a family of twelve, with three brothers and six sisters, he was the second son, after his brother James. When James Spicer Senior died in 1888, Albert inherited the paper company with his brother James, transforming it into the largest and most productive paper company in the world. On 6 March 1879, he married Jessie Stewart Dykes, daughter of David Dykes and his wife Janet Buxton. They had eleven children, three boys and eight girls: Albert, Marion, Bertha, Grace, Stewart Dykes, Janet, Lancelot, Gwendoline Elaine, Eva, Olga and Ursula. He was created a Baronet in 1906, and served as Member of Parliament for the Monmouth Boroughs from 1892 to 1900, and for Hackney Central from 1906 to 1918. He was a J.P. for Essex and was appointed as a Privy Councillor in 1912.