John William Wrigglesworth Badger (known as William) was born in Sheffield in 1863, the son of John Jackson Badger and his wife, Eliza.  His father operated William Badger & Co.   John became a farmer and in 1891 was living in Backmoor Cottage, Hemsworth.  In the mid-1890s, however, he apparently launched William Badger, Empire Works, Eyre Street, for the manufacturer of silver plated and steel cutlery.  An advertisement appeared in the Foreign Buyers’ Catalogue (1895).   The venture was bankrupt by 1898.  

In 1901, Badger’s wife, Annie née Eades (manageress of the Peacock Hotel, Baslow), divorced him for adultery and desertion.  In that year, William was enumerated as a cutlery merchant, living with his next wife, Rosamund, who was eleven years his junior.  William Badger, Norton Lees Square, died in Sheffield on 15 March 1942, aged 79.   He left £501.