William Ferguson Massey was an Irish-born New Zealand politician, born 26 March 1856 in Limavady, County Londonderry, and died 10 May 1925 in Wellington, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1870 and became the founding leader of the Reform Party, serving as the nineteenth Prime Minister from 10 July 1912 until his death. Nicknamed "Farmer Bill" for his own agricultural background, he held the Agriculture portfolio within his own long premiership as part of a government that championed farmers' interests, enacting legislation enabling some 13,000 Crown tenants to purchase their own farms, and represented New Zealand at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
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