William Cockerill was a British entrepreneur who created a textile machine manufacturing business in Verviers and Liège, Belgium (then part of the French First Republic).
He was instrumental in founding the industrial spinning industry in continental Europe.
William Cockerill was a Belgian entrepreneur of British descent. He was a man with a lot of mechanical talent who earned his money by making spinning machines. By using British inventions (then not covered by patents in Belgium), he founded one of the largest European companies active in textiles, steam engines, iron mines, weapons, metal construction and locomotives.
