to get the Conservative chairman of the City Education Committee to agree to the idea of setting up a university. Travers wrote pamphlets advocating the university and editorials were written for the Bristol Times supporting the university. By 1905 it could be stated that the national government were supportive of the idea of setting up a university in Bristol. Here, two piece of fortune occurred. The Blind Asylum on Queen's Rd at the top of Park Street, where the Wills Memorial Building now stands, came up for sale. Travers picked up a telephone line which was shared with the Asylum and was able to eavesdrop and hear the conversation which stated that the trustees were preparing to sell. Although with a price of £40,000 for the land it seemed unlikely the college could afford to purchase the plot, on 11 January 1906, William Travers was told by Lewis Fry that he had been promised the money to purchase the plot by several members of the Fry family and Wills Family: his brother Joseph Storrs Fry (£10,000), cousin Francis Fry (£5,000), Sir William Henry Wills (£10,000) and Sir Fredrick Wills (£5,000). It was the Wills and Fry families who were the chief benefactors of what became the University of Bristol. Joseph Storrs Fry was a successful businessman but the wealth of the Fry family was small in relation to that of the Wills. Frederick Wills had sat on University College councils and between 1900 and 1906 was the sitting MP for Bristol North, the seat that was previously occupied by Lewis Fry. William Henry Wills was first chairman of Imperial Tobacco and his families personal estate was estimated to make the Wills family one of the richest families in the land. The second fortunate event occurred in January 1906 when the Merchant Venturers' Technical College was destroyed by fire. The Merchant Venturers saw University College, Bristol as dominated by Liberals and therefore supported the Bristol Trade School instead. The fire made the organisation worried about its future and removed any objection which they would have to the creation of a university. In 1906 a committee to promote the creation of the university was established. Lewis Fry was able to announce that £30,000 as an endowment fund was to be given by Lord Winterstoke (a member of the Wills Family). The Merchant Venturers had negotiations to join with the college but were