Sir Ernest Wills, 3rd Baronet


Sir Ernest Salter Wills, 3rd Baronet of Hazelwood & Clapton in-Gordano, Laird of Meggernie Castle CStJ JP was Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire from 1930 to 1942. He played tennis at Wimbledon in the early 1900s.

Life

The son of Sir Edward Payson Wills, 1st Baronet, and of Lady Wills, Wills was born in 1869. He was educated at Monkton Combe School, just outside Bath in Somerset from 1884 to 1885. He succeeded his elder brother in the baronetcy in 1921.
The Wills family were part owners of W. D. & H. O. Wills, tobacco importers and cigarette manufacturers, which had been founded in Bristol by Wills's great-grandfather, Henry Overton Wills I, in 1786, and later became part of Imperial Tobacco. Wills was a cousin of Gilbert Wills, 1st Baron Dulverton, Sir George Alfred Wills, Baronet of Blagdon, and a nephew of Henry Overton Wills III, Sir Frederick Wills Bt & Sir Frank William Wills Kt.
In 1894, Wills married Caroline Fanny Maud, daughter of William Augustine de Winton, of Westbury Lodge, Durdham Down, Bristol, and they had two sons and three daughters.
Wills owned substantial properties in England and Scotland: Clapton Court, Somerset; Ramsbury Manor and Littlecote House in Wiltshire, acquired in 1929; and Meggernie Castle in Perthshire. He also owned the Château de l'oiseau bleu at Menton on the French Riviera. He was a director of Imperial Tobacco and of the Portishead District Water Company.
Sir Ernest was succeeded in the title by his elder son; Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edward de Winton Wills, 4th Baronet of Hazelwood, Laird of Meggernie Castle, Scots Guards; the Officer Commanding the Royal Guard of HM King George VI, at Balmoral Castle. Sir Ernest's most notable grandchildren are: