Thomas Lister Villiers
Sir Thomas Lister Villiers (October 31, 1869 – 1959) was a British planter in Ceylon. He was a European member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon from 1924 to 1931 and Chairmen of George Steuart Company.[1][2]
Born in Adisham to Rev. Henry Montagu Villiers and Lady Victoria Russell, daughter of Lord John Russell former British Prime Minister. He was educated at the Sherborne School and left to Ceylon to start a career as a planter apprenticing at the Elbedde Estate in Bogawantalawa. He left Ceylon and spend four years in Brazil, returning to Ceylon in 1900, he purchased a tea estate, the Dickoya Group. He joined the George Steuart Company in 1905 and in 1928 he became the Chairman of the George Steuart Company, a post he held until his retirement in 1949. In 1929 he began construction of Adisham Hall, his country house in Bandarawela which was completed in 1931. He left Ceylon after his retirement and died in Kent in 1959.
He married Evelyn Hope Walker in 1896, they had two sons. Their eldest Henry Lister Villiers was killed in World War I in 1917 as a Lieutenant in the British Army and their youngest served in the Royal Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in World War II. After the death of his first wife, he married Marjorie Glencora Keyt in 1953.