William Arrol

---

title: "William Arrol" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1839-births", "1913-deaths", "people-from-renfrewshire", "bridgeton–calton–dalmarnock", "knights-bachelor", "presidents-of-the-institution-of-engineers-and-shipbuilders-in-scotland", "civil-engineering-contractors", "scottish-civil-engineers", "british-bridge-engineers", "liberal-unionist-party-mps-for-scottish-constituencies", "uk-mps-1895–1900", "uk-mps-1900–1906", "scottish-engineering-hall-of-fame-inductees", "scottish-company-founders", "19th-century-scottish-businesspeople", "20th-century-scottish-businesspeople", "19th-century-scottish-engineers", "20th-century-scottish-engineers"] description: "British politician" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Arrol" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British politician ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/William_Arrol,_Page_70.jpg" caption="Portrait of William Arrol"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Bust_of_William_Arrol,_People's_Palace_museum,_Glasgow,_1888.jpg" caption="Bust of William Arrol, People's Palace museum, Glasgow"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Sir_William_Arrol_memorial_-geograph.org.uk-_1076274.jpg" caption="People's Palace"] ::

Sir William Arrol (13 February 1839 – 20 February 1913) was a Scottish civil engineer, bridge builder, and Liberal Unionist Party politician.

Early life

The son of a spinner, Arrol was born in Houston, Renfrewshire, and started work in a cotton mill at only 9 years of age, prior to commencing training as a blacksmith by age 13, and going on to learn mechanics and hydraulics at night school.{{cite web|url= https://uk.news.yahoo.com/abandoned-home-sir-william-arrol-142727798.html|title=Abandoned home of Sir William Arrol restored after being saved from demolition|newspaper=Glasgow Herald|access-date=17 January 2024}}

Career

In 1863 he joined a company of bridge manufacturers in Glasgow, but by 1872 he had established his own business, the Dalmarnock Iron Works, in the east end of the city. The business evolved to become Sir William Arrol & Co., a large international civil engineering business.

Projects undertaken by the business under his leadership included the replacement for the Tay Bridge (completed in 1887), the Forth Bridge (completed in 1890) and Tower Bridge (completed in 1894).

Arrol was knighted in 1890, He served as President of The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland from 1895–97. He spent the latter years of his life on his estate at Seafield House, near Ayr, where he died on 20 February 1913.

Legacy

In 2013 he was one of four inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame. His image is also featured on the Clydesdale Bank £5 note introduced in 2015.

References

References

1. "Sir William Arrol". Scottish Gazetteer.
2. "The giant Arrol Gantry". National Museums Northern Ireland.
3. (26 April 2015). "Seafield Children's Hospital". Historic Hospitals.
4. "Sir William Arrol (1839–1913)". Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
5. (23 March 2015). "Clydesdale Bank brings in plastic £5 notes". BBC News.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::