Now students want building renamed in slave link row

STUDENTS are campaigning to have an ‘offensive’ landmark building rebranded because it bears the name of a university founder with links to the slave trade.

A petition at the University of Bristol demands a name change for the Wills Memorial Building as it ‘glorifies an individual who profited so greatly from such an immoral practice’.

It claims the building, which was named after the university’s first chancellor Henry Overton Wills III, is a threat to ‘inclusivity and diversity’ and might be considered racist. The businessman donated £100,000 in 1908 to help establish the university, and the building was opened in his honour in 1925.

His philanthropic gesture has benefited generations of students at the elite Russell Group university, but campaigners claim his memory must be ‘purged’ from campus.

They say his family’s company, WD & HO Wills, known for its Strand, Navy Cut and Woodbines cigarettes, benefited through tobacco imports from slave plantations.

The petition says: ‘While we begrudgingly under- stand that Bristol has a historical connection to the slave trade, we find it hard to accept that the university still glorifies an individual who profited so greatly from such an immoral practice. We ask the university to uphold its commitment to diversity and inclusivity and revise the name of the building.’

The Wills Memorial Building houses the law and earth sciences schools and is the setting for graduations, exams and numerous talks. The public can take tours of its tower.

The petition to have it renamed has been signed online by more than 400 people. One of its creators, Shakeel Taylor- Camara, said the petition was ‘not an attempt to cover up Bristol’s ties to slavery, nor whitewash history.’

He added: ‘However, we feel the building should be named after an individual that we, as an institution and city, can be proud of.’

A university spokesman said it was important to be ‘open and reflective about our history’ and that it would ‘seem disingenuous to seek to deny or coverup’ its relationship with the Wills family.

There is currently another campaign in Bristol to rename Colston Hall, an entertainment venue named after slave trader Edward Colston.

The student petition also echoes an unsuccessful campaign by Oxford students to have a statue of the 19th-century imperialist Cecil Rhodes removed from Oriel College.

‘A threat to diversity’