Sir William Cameron Gull, 2nd Baronet Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire Member of Parliament Justice of the Peace, known as Sir Cameron Gull, was a barrister and Liberal Unionist politician in England, who served for five years as a member of parliament.
Background
Gull was born on 6 January 1860, the third child of the leading 19th century physician Sir William Withey Gull and his wife Susan Gull. At the time of his birth, his father had a home-based practice at 8 Finsbury Square, London. When his father died in 1890, Gull and his family lived at Gloucester Street, off Portman Square.
William Gull was named as one of the executors of his father"s will.
Education
William was educated at Eton College and later studied law at Christ Church, Oxford, winning the Vinerian Scholarship in 1883.
Career
A year later, the family moved to a new home at 74, Brook Street, in London"s Mayfair district. He inherited the sum of £40,000 and all his father"s real estate, which included the house in Mayfair and a house in Scotland. He also inherited his father"s title, becoming 2nd Baronet.
Gull was a barrister of Lincoln"s Inn in the City of London, called to the bar in 1886.
The Partnership Acting 1890 established the legal rules that defined the nature of a legal partnership, the powers and obligations of partners and limitations of liability. In 1892 he stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a Liberal Unionist in the Moray and Nairn constituency in Scotland.
In the ensuing Parliament the Liberal Unionist party was to support the ruling Conservative administration led by Lord Salisbury. During his term in parliament, Gull supported the 1896 reform of Poor Law barrack schools.
He also took an interest in rail transport, rural affairs and in foreign affairs such as the Boxer Rebellion in China and the conduct of the Boer War
He was High Sheriff of Berkshire for 1908.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1918 Birthday Honours At the time of his death he was an alderman of Berkshire County Council. In 1886, Gull married the Honorary Annie Clayton Lindley, daughter of Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley, and Sarah Katherine Teale.
They lived together at Frilsham House at Frilsham in Berkshire.
The elder son, Francis William Lindley Gull, was born on 1 November 1889 and educated at Eton, leaving the school in 1908. He served with the rank of Major in the Rifle Brigade, was wounded in France in the summer of 1916 and was eventually killed in action on 25 August 1918.
The second son was Richard Cameron Gull. He became the 3rd Baronet upon his father"s death in 1922.
The four daughters were Mary Edith Gull (born 1887).
Amy Beatrice Gull (1888–1971). Jessie Katherine Gull (1892–1894). And Dorothea Susan Gull (born 1897).
Membership
26th United Kingdom Parliament]
Between 1891 and 1894 he was a member of the London School Board. At the general election of July 1895, Gull was elected as the Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for the Barnstaple division of Devon.