Sir William Arrol 1839 - 1913. Born Houston in Renfrewshire.

Arrol began work in his father's cotton mill as a spinner when he was 9 years old. He then moved to Paisley for a job with a blacksmith in 1853 before moving to Port Glasgow to work for Blackmoor and Gordon - a company that specialised in bridge construction. There he earned enough to buy his own boiler and engine and launched out on his. This business did well and he was then able to acquire the Dalmarnock Iron Works in 1872 .

From there he began looking for contracts for work involving bridge maintenance and construction. The first significant contract for the company was for the Caledonian Railway Company which included an arched bridge to carry the Hamilton Branch Line across the River Clyde. Other railway contracts followed and in 1882 he was responsible for the construction of the second bridge over the Tay and a contract for the Forth Bridge followed.

William Arrol acquired a reputation for innovative solutions and by the time the Forth Bridge was in progress he had been awarded a contract for the steelwork for Tower Bridge over the Thames. In 1890 he was knighted by Queen Victoria and so became Sir William Arrol - a huge recognition for a man who had begun work as a spinner in a mill at the age of 9!

Later contracts included providing steelwork for 3 bridges over the River Nile in Egypt and a Scherzer rolling bascule in Barrow-in-Furness.

Despite his heavy workload Sir William then entered parliament in 1892 after being elected to represent South Ayrshire for the Liberal Party - he had purchased an estate in Seafield near to Ayr in 1885 and had built a grand house on the estate. He served as MP until 1906.

At its height the company works covered around 17 acres and had a workforce on-site of 2,000 staff with many more employed on the sites of contracts. After his death in 1913 the company continued to operate as a self-contained business until 1969.