Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Irwin, William G. 1843 - January 28, 1914
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J. Orr orr@hawaii.com September 9, 2009, 3:06 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd., Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

WILLIAM G. IRWIN, Industrial Builder and Capitalist. The late William G. 
Irwin, widely known Honolulu and San Francisco capitalist and philanthropist, 
closely allied for many years with the late Claus Spreckels in banking and the 
establishment and operation of sugar plantations, long exercised great 
influence in Hawaii and later, with his home in San Francisco, became a 
financial power in California.
  Born in England in 1843, the son of James and Mary Irwin, Mr. Irwin was 
brought to Hawaii by his parents in early childhood. His father, a paymaster 
in the ordnance department of the British army, sailed for California with a 
cargo of merchandise immediately after the historic discovery of gold in 1849. 
From San Francisco, the elder Irwin came to Honolulu with his family and 
remained here. He was at one time secretary of the Hawaiian Foreign Office 
under the Monarchy. There were four children in the family, William G., 
Frederick and Leonora Irwin and Mrs. Elizabeth Irwin Spalding.
  William G. Irwin was educated at Punahou School and as a young man was 
employed at different times by Aldrich, Walker & Co., Lewers & Dickson, and 
Walker, Allen & Co., pioneer Honolulu firms. Engaging in business for himself, 
Mr. Irwin, in association with Z. S. Spalding and J. S. Walker, organized the 
firm of William G. Irwin & Co., which was dissolved by mutual consent in 1880.
  The following year, with Claus Spreckels as his partner, the firm of W. G. 
Irwin & Co. was organized, and in 1885 Mr. Irwin and Mr. Spreckels opened the 
bank of Claus Spreckels & Co., later incorporated under the name of Bank of 
Honolulu, Ltd., and, in recent years, amalgamated with the Bank of Bishop & 
Co. Both Mr. Spreckels and Mr. Irwin acquired extensive sugar plantation 
holdings and other Hawaiian properties.
  In 1913 Mr. Irwin incorporated his estate in San Francisco under the name of 
the William G. Irwin Estate Co., which still owns large holdings in Hawaiian 
plantations. He had extensive business interests in California as well as in 
this Territory, and was actively associated with the Mercantile National Bank 
of San Francisco in later years.
  A close friend of King Kalakaua, Mr. Irwin was decorated by that Monarch and 
was a member of the Privy Council of Hawaii in 1887. In 1901 he was made a 
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government in recognition of 
his services as Hawaii’s representative to the Paris Exposition. Mr. Irwin was 
a member of Lodge le Progres de l’Oceanie, No. 371, F. & A.M., of Honolulu, a 
Knight Templar, Shriner and a member of the old British Club, now the Pacific 
Club, of Honolulu, and the Pacific Union Club of San Francisco. In 1886, Mr. 
Irwin married Mrs. Fannie Holladay. Their only child, Helene Irwin, is now 
Mrs. Charles Templeton Crocker of Burlingame, Calif. Mr. Irwin died in San 
Francisco, Jan. 28, 1914.


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