List of Famous people named William

Admiral William Henry Smyth KFM DCL FRS FRAS FRGS FSA was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hydrographic charts, for his astronomical work, and for a wide range of publications and translations.

William II was sovereign Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands from 14 March 1647 until his death three years later. His only child, William III, reigned as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

Lt. Col the Rt. Hon. Sir William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle,, MP, ADC, styled Viscount Bury between 1851 and 1891, was a British soldier and politician. He served in the British Army before entering Parliament in 1857. Initially a Liberal, he served as Treasurer of the Household between 1859 and 1866 in the Liberal administrations headed by Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell. He later switched to the Conservatives and held office as Under-Secretary of State for War under Lord Beaconsfield between 1878 and 1880 and under Lord Salisbury between 1885 and 1886. Lord Albemarle was 6th in direct line-of-descent from HM King Charles II; he was the father-in-law of the Honourable Mrs George (Alice) Keppel (1898-1910) the mistress and confidante of HM King Edward VII; and he was the great great grandfather of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, GCVO.

William Reierson Arbuthnot was a British businessman and legislator. He served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1861 to 1864 and 1866 to 1870. He worked with Arbuthnot & Co and was Chairman of the Bank of Madras and the Chamber of Commerce of Madras and Director of Commercial Union Insurance Co and of the Midland Bank Ltd.

William I, Duke of Bavaria-Straubing, was the second son of Emperor Louis IV and Margaret II of Hainaut. He was also known as William V, Count of Holland, as William III, Count of Hainaut and as William IV, Count of Zeeland.

William Thomson, was an English church leader, Archbishop of York from 1862 until his death.

William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne KG KB PC, was an English courtier and supporter of the arts. He was a renowned horse breeder, as well as being patron of the playwright Ben Jonson, and the intellectual group known as the Welbeck Circle.

William Comyn was Lord of Badenoch and Earl of Buchan. He was one of the seven children of Richard Comyn, Justiciar of Lothian, and Hextilda of Tynedale. He was born in Scotland, in Altyre, Moray in 1163 and died in Buchan in 1233 where he is buried in Deer Abbey.

William Waldorf Astor II, 3rd Viscount Astor was an English businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was also a member of the Astor family.

William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, FRS was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and his wife, the former Alethea Talbot. A Fellow of the Royal Society from 1665, he was a Royalist supporter before being falsely implicated by Titus Oates in the later discredited "Popish Plot", and executed for treason. He was beatified as a Catholic martyr by Pope Pius XI in 1929.