William Henry Hayward was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born farmer and political figure in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. He represented Esquimalt

Esquimalt (electoral district)

Esquimalt was a provincial electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was one of the province's first twelve ridings upon its entry into Confederation. It was originally a two-member riding...

 from 1900 to 1903 and Cowichan

Cowichan (electoral district)

Cowichan was one of the first twelve electoral districts created when British Columbia became a Canadian province in 1871. It was located on southern Vancouver Island. It was a one-member riding only . Its last appearance on the husting was in 1920...

 from 1907 to 1918 as a Conservative

British Columbia Conservative Party

The British Columbia Conservative Party is a political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1903, the party went into decline after 1933...

 in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, the provincial parliament ....

.

He was born in Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 and was educated at the Sutton Vale school and at Dover College

Dover College

Dover College is a co-educational independent school in Dover in southeast England. It was founded in 1871, and takes both day pupils and boarders....

. From 1887 to 1893, he was involved in tobacco planting in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. Hayward was an unsuccessful candidate for a seat in the provincial assembly in 1898. He was president of the Central Dairy Institute, a director of the Dairymen's Association of British Columbia and secretary-treasurer for the BC Fruit Growers Association. On several occasions, Hayward proposed amendments to the province's Land Act to bar non-Caucasians

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

from acquiring Crown lands in the province. In 1916, he ran for reelection as an Independent candidate, although he was endorsed by the Conservatives. He resigned his seat in November 1918 "due to official military duties in Ottawa".