William Macbride Childs (1869–1939) was an English academic administrator and historian, who was involved in the foundation of the University of Reading and who served briefly as its first vice-chancellor.
[1][2] Childs was born, on 3 January 1869, in the village of Carrington, situated some 8 miles (13 km) north of Boston in Lincolnshire.
He was the son of the Revd William Linington Childs, vicar of Carrington, and his second wife, Henrietta Fowles Bell.
He made it his aim to turn the college into a University, working to this end by attracting students from a distance with hostels and, eventually, halls of residence.
In 1926, when the University of Reading officially received that charter, Childs became the first vice-chancellor, being born aloft by his students and carried around the grounds.