Tribute has been paid to former wool textile industry leader and Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire Sir William Bulmer, who died in Jersey aged 92.

Cullingworth-born Sir William, a former managing director of Bulmer & Lumb Ltd., at Buttershaw, successively chaired two Bradford-based trade bodies, the National Wool Textile Export Corporation and the Wool Textile Delegation.

In 1969 he produced a major report on the future of wool textiles on behalf of the Government’s Economic Development Committee.

He was a founder of the British Textile Confederation and a strong advocate of British membership of the then European Economic Community (now the European Union) at the time of the 1975 referendum.

John Lambert, a former NWTEC and Wool Textile Delegation official, said: “It is probably true to say that he was the last real grandee of the industry with an aura about him which impressed many people.”

Sir William joined the business started by his father after war service with the Royal Artillery where he was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was captured in 1942 but escaped from a PoW camp. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and at Bradford Technical College. Sir William became managing director of Bulmer & Lumb in 1963 and retired in 1985. He was knighted in 1974 for services to wool textiles.