Sir William Theodore Doxford DL (1 February 1841 – 1 October 1916) was a British shipbuilder and politician.

They eventually had nine children, six of whom survived to adulthood: After several years of success in his shipbuilding company (held jointly by him and his brothers since their father's death in 1882), Doxford became the first Conservative in forty years to be elected for the two-seat constituency of Sunderland, when he became a Unionist Member of Parliament in 1895.

He was also a Deputy Lieutenant for County Durham from 1896 and was a founding member and second president of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders.

[citation needed] Joining the Institution of Naval Architects in 1878, he was elected a council member in 1896 and became vice-president in 1908.

[citation needed] Doxford died on 1 October 1916, aged 74, at his home, Grindon Hall, a few months after the death of his wife.