Sir William Dunn, 1st Baronet, MP JP FRGS (22 September 1833 – 31 March 1912), was a London banker, merchant and philanthropist, Liberal Member of Parliament for Paisley (1891–1906), and from before 1896 until the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899 consul general for the Orange Free State in the United Kingdom.

[2][3] It is suggested that Dunn received his earliest education at home, although there are also indications that he attended school in the working-class West End District of Paisley.

Since his elder brothers – William was the youngest – all went to work in spinning and weaving, it seems reasonable to surmise that Dunn, through his intelligence and education, was able to break free from his social environment.

[4] Dunn emigrated to South Africa in 1852, supported by a friend of his father's, local Member of Parliament William Barbour.

Dunn was also active as chairman of the South African section of the London Chamber of Commerce and member of the Executive Council of that institution.

In his will, dated 4 November 1908, Dunn prescribed that his inheritance had to be made available for the advancement of Christianity and the benefit of children and young people, for the support of hospitals, as well as "to alleviate human suffering, to encourage education and promote emigration".

[5] After handing out a large number of small grants to hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, etc., the trustees decided on a grander scheme.

Between them, the two establishments have yielded ten Nobel Prize winners, including Hopkins, for the discovery of vitamins, and professors Howard Florey and Ernst Chain (Oxford), for their developmental work on penicillin.

The Dunn Laboratories at Cambridge and at Oxford are forever associated with major discoveries that have helped alleviate human suffering, facts that would surely have pleased Sir William and his trustees.