Argentine beef to England, and it was for this service to the wartime provisioning of England that William Vestey was later raised to the peerage. He was made a Baronet of Bessémer House in the Metropoliton Borough of Camberwell on 21 June 1913, and Baron of Kingswood in the County of Surrey on 20 June 1922. His appointment occurred at the height of the honours scandal surrounding the sale of peerage, which implicated the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. William Vestey was not consider worthy of ennoblement because the Vestey brothers had moved their meatpacking business out of the country during the First World War, to avoid paying millions of pounds in tax. Even though King George V opposed Sir William becoming a baron, he received the title from Lloyd George after paying a £20,000 political donation. Personal life His first wife died in 1923 and was buried in Liverpool Cathedral. He then married Evelene Brodstone of Superior, Nebraska, on 1 August 1924. She had been working as a stenographer with the Vestey Meat Packing Plant in Chicago, where she was spotted by his brother. She would rise through the company, eventually becoming the highest paid female executive in the world. She survived him following his death aged 81 in December 1940. His ashes were buried in Liverpool Cathedral. On 24 July 1941, the 2nd Lady Vestey was buried at Evergreen Cemetery of Superior in Nebraska. Each spring during memorial weekend, Superior holds the annual Lady Vestey Festival in her honour. This is the town's largest annual celebration and it attracts many people from around the area. Literature Phillip Knightley The Rise and Fall of the House of Vestey, on the business empire established by William Vestey in 1897; References 1859 births 1940 deaths Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Businesspeople from Liverpool William Barons created by George V