William Hill

English businessman (1903–1971)

William Hill (16 July 1903 – 15 October 1971) was an English businessman who was the founder of William Hill, the British bookmaking firm.2

From Wikipedia’s article on William Hill (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Jul 16, 1903, died Oct 15, 1971.1

About

Born in Birmingham, Hill left school at the age of twelve to work on his uncle's farm. While working in a factory in Birmingham he started collecting illegal bets from local people on his motorcycle. In 1919, Hill joined the Royal Irish Constabulary (Cork East Riding - and is documented on the RIC records as such) as a driver while underage (16) and was stationed in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland.

After the hopeless failure of his first foray into bookmaking, he moved to London in 1929 where he started taking bets on greyhounds before opening an illicit gambling den in Jermyn Street in 1934. He exploited a loophole which allowed credit or postal betting but not cash.

In 1938, he was the joint owner of Lone Keel who went on to win the 1938 English Greyhound Derby.

In 1944, he produced the first fixed-odds football coupon. In 1954, he reversed his business into Holder's Investment Trust, a shell company, thereby securing a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

From Wikipedia’s article on William Hill, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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