Sir James Bain (1818?-1898) was a stockbroker and Lord Provost of Glasgow, who served briefly as MP for Whitehaven.
Bain was the general manager of William Baird & Co and subsequently a partner in a colliery and ironworks at Whitehaven. Elected to the town council in 1863, he served as Lord Provost, 1874-1877. He was knighted in 1877.
As Deputy Chairman of the Clyde Navigation Trust, Bain was a supporter of various dock extension schemes and, with Sir James Lumsden, acquired land in Govan which was subsequently sold at cost to the Trust for the creation of Prince's Dock. He was also a prominent supporter of the scheme to remove the weir at Glasgow Green, to help "flush" the lower reaches of the polluted River Clyde.
Reference: Mitchell Library, 920.04BAI
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
Clyde Navigation Trust, Glasgow Green, Lord Provosts, Members of Parliament, MPs, Prince's Dock, River Clyde, river pollution, stockbrokers, weirs, William Baird & Co