[Sir]. British engineer, born at Houston, Renfrewshire, on the 13th of February 1839. In his boyhood he was apprenticed to a smith at Paisley, and worked through several engineering shops until, in 1868, he was able to set up as a boiler-maker. In 1872 he took up construction in steel and started the Dalmarnock ironworks, becoming an expert in bridge-building. The Caledonian Railway bridge at Glasgow, the reconstructed Tay bridge (1882–87), Forth bridge (1882–89), the Tower bridge, London, and the Nile bridge at Cairo were amongst his principal achievements. He was knighted in 1890. He sat in the House of Commons for Ayrshire (S.) as a Unionist member from 1895–1906. He died at Ayr on the 20th of February 1913.
See Sir Robert Purvis, Sir William Arrol (1913).
