Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Pearce, William George
PEARCE, Sir WILLIAM GEORGE, second baronet, of Carde (1861–1907), benefactor to Trinity College, Cambridge, born at Chatham on 23 July 1861, was only child of Sir William Pearce [q. v.] by his wife Dinah Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Sowter of Gravesend. Educated at Rugby (1876–1878), he matriculated in 1881 at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. and LL.B. in 1884, proceeding M.A. in 1888. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1885. On the death of his father in December 1888 he succeeded him in the chairmanship of the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Glasgow, an undertaking the development of which had been the principal work of his father's life. Under Pearce's chairmanship, which lasted from 1888 until his death, the company maintained its high reputation [see Elgar, Francis, Suppl. II. Pearce was returned to parliament in 1892 as conservative member for Plymouth along with Sir Edward Clarke, but did not seek re-election in 1895. He was honorary colonel of the 2nd Devon volunteers Royal Garrison Artillery. He was a keen sportsman, and his estate of Chilton Lodge, Hungerford, was noted for the excellence of its shooting. He died after a short illness on 2 Nov. 1907 at 2 Deanery Street, Park Lane, and was buried at Chilton Foliat near Hungerford.
He married on 18 March 1905 Caroline Eva, daughter of Robert Coote. There was no issue of the marriage. By his will he left the residue of his property, estimated at over 150,000l., subject to his wife's life interest, to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he had remained a member, although he had maintained no close association with the college after his life there as an undergraduate. Lady Pearce only survived her husband a few weeks. The college thus acquired probably the most valuable of the many accessions which have been made to its endowments since its foundation by Henry VIII.
[The Times, 4 and 8 Nov. 1907; History of the Fairfield Works.]