Sir William Dunn , 1st Baronet , of Lakenheath Sir William Dunn , 1st Baronet , of Lakenheath , MP , JP , FRGS ( 22 September 1833 – 31 March 1912 ) , was a London banker , merchant and philanthropist , Liberal Member of Parliament for Paisley ( 1891 – 1906 ) , and from before 1896 until the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899 consul general for the Orange Free State in the United Kingdom . Biography . Family . Dunn ' s family origins were modest . He was born in Paisley near Glasgow on 22 September 1833 to John Dunn , a local shopkeeper , and Isabella Chalmers . Dunn married in South Africa in 1859 with Sarah Elizabeth Howse ( 1 May 1830 – 2 February 1919 ) , daughter of James Howse ( 1796 – 1852 ) , of Grahamstown , Cape Colony , and Sarah Ann Dold ( 1803 – 1881 ) . James Howse emigrated to Algoa Bay , South Africa from Oxfordshire in 1820 . He started off as a labourer , but later owned the farm " Leeuwfontein " . He was killed in an ambush on the way to his farm on New Year ' s Day 1852 . Education and training . It is suggested that Dunn received his earliest education at home , although there are also indications that he attended school in the working - class West End District of Paisley . At the age of fourteen Dunn became an apprentice at a local accountant ' s office . In view of the fact that his elder brothers – William was the youngest – all went to work in spinning and weaving , it seems reasonable to surmise that Dunn , through his intelligence and education , was able to break free from his social environment . Career . Dunn emigrated to South Africa in 1852 , supported by a friend of his father ' s , local Member of Parliament William Barbour . where he landed in Algoa Bay . He entered the firm of Mackie & Co . of Port Elizabeth . After two years , still only twenty - one years old , he was offered a partnership in the firm . Another six years later , in 1860 , Dunn succeeded his deceased partner as sole proprietor of the business . Over time , Dunn built up a large worldwide trading empire from his South African base . Later he returned to Great Britain and controlled his businesses from London . Dunn was senior partner in the firms of William Dunn & Co . of Broad Street Avenue , London EC ; Mackie , Dunn , & Co . of Port Elizabeth ; W . Dunn & Co . of Durban ; and in Dunn & Co . of East London . He was also a director of the Royal Exchange Assurance Co . and of the Union Discount Co . and chairman of the Home and Foreign Insurance Co . Political career . After his return to Britain he settled in London , where he entered public service , as alderman for Cheap Ward in the City of London and from 1891 until the dissolution in 1906 as Liberal member of parliament for Paisley . He was also the consul general of the Orange Free State until the outbreak of the Second Boer War . Dunn was also active as chairman of the South African section of the London Chamber of Commerce and member of the Executive Council of that institution . Dunn was created a baronet in 1895 , becoming Sir William Dunn of Lakenheath , after his residence in the country . While in London he lived at 34 Phillimore Gardens , Kensington and alternatively at " The Retreat " , Lakenheath , Suffolk . Both he and his wife were buried at West Norwood Cemetery . On his death in 1912 , Sir William ' s estate was valued at 1 . 3 million pounds . The baronetcy became extinct upon his death . Legacy . Despite his noble gestures in death , described below , Dunn ' s background and business dealings are shady . During his lifetime and after he received a bad press . He was called " pathologically mean " and " a social climber who married for money " . It was rumoured that he sold liquor to the African population in the Eastern Cape . Once in Parliament he allegedly did everything in his power to further his own agenda . And with his will something was amiss as well . His wife contested it and won . On the other hand , there is little evidence to substantiate the accusations and rumours . Philanthropy . Dunn had no natural heirs and left his fortune to charity . In his will , dated 4 November 1908 , Dunn prescribed that his inheritance had be made available for the advancement of Christianity and the benefit of children and young people , for the support of hospitals , as well as " to alleviate human suffering , to encourage education and promote emigration " . Dunn allotted about half his capital himself and created the Dunn Chair of New Testament Theology at Westminster College , Cambridge . The settlement of the rest of his inheritance he left to his trustees . After handing out a large number of small grants to hospitals , nursing homes , orphanages , etc . , the trustees decided on a grander scheme . In cooperation with Sir William Bate Hardy , secretary of the Royal Society and Sir Walter Morley Fletcher , the secretary of the Medical Research Committee , they decided to fund research in biochemistry and pathology . To this end they funded Professor Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins ( 1861 – 1947 ) in Cambridge with a sum of £210 , 000 in 1920 for the advancement of his work in biochemistry . Two years later they endowed Professor Georges Dreyer ( 1873 – 1934 ) of the Oxford University with a sum of £100 , 000 for research in pathology . The money enabled each of the recipients to establish a chair and sophisticated teaching and research laboratories , the Sir William Dunn Institute of Biochemistry at Cambridge and the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford . Between them , the two establishments have yielded ten Nobel Prize winners , including Hopkins , for the discovery of vitamins , and professors Howard Florey and Ernst Chain ( Oxford ) , for their developmental work on penicillin . The Dunn Trustees also endowed the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory at Cambridge , which opened in 1927 . The Dunn Laboratories at Cambridge and at Oxford are forever associated with major discoveries that have helped alleviate human suffering , facts that would surely have pleased Sir William and his trustees . Dunn himself made more earthly gifts , like the donation – to his birthplace Paisley in 1894 – of a square , " to be kept for the enjoyment of all the inhabitants " , which was named " Dunn Square " .