William Brooks Close was born on this day, May 6, 1853 in Naples, Italy and was brought up on his father’s yacht.
He was educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1878 he started the Close Brothers Group with his brothers James and John. They were involved in the financing of the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad in the 1880’s. The Close Brothers Financial Group is still in existence in London.
Close came to Skagway in 1899 to see the railroad and became an honorary member of the Arctic Brotherhood but he never lived here. He was related by marriage to Samuel Graves.
William Close died in 1923 on the Isle of Wight.
Close Brothers website history; the White Pass by Minter; Freemasonry website.