1343 Sir William Arrol

Constituency : South  Ayrshire  1895-1906 ( Liberal  Unionist )

Sir  William  unseated  Eugene  Wason  at  the  second  attempt.

William  was  a  spinner's  son  from  Renfrewshire. He  worked  in  a  cotton  mill  and  as  a  blacksmith  while  studying  engineering  at  night  school. In  1863  he  joined  a  company  of  bridge  builders  in  Glasgow  where  he  learned  enough  to  start  his  own  ironworks  in  1872. A  few  years  later  he  started  a  civil  engineering  business. William's  company  was  responsible  for  both  the  replacement  Tay  Bridge and  the  Forth  Bridge. He  then  went  on  to  design  Tower  Bridge  and  prominent  bridges  in  Egypt  and  Australia.William's  firm  also  built  the  gantry  in  Belfast  which  allowed  construction  of  the  Titanic. He  was  President  of  the  Institution  of  Engineers  and  Shipbuilders  in  Scotland  from  1895  to  1897. He  had  an  estate  near  Ayr.

William  rarely  spoke  in  parliament  but  he  did  oppose  the  Land  Values  Taxation ( Scotland )  Bill  in  1905  as  injurious  to  business  in  Glasgow.

William  supported  Chamberlain  on  Tariff  Reform  against  the  wishes  of  his  local  Liberal  Unionist  Association.

William  stood  down  in  1906.

He  died  in  1913  aged  74.