Description

Stockbroker, railway director, hotel owner, landowner, politician, art collector

Born in Edinburgh in 1821.

1886 His daughter Alicia Ellen Renton married [John Aird]]'s son, John Aird.

1887 chairman of the Ayrshire and Wigtownshire Railway which was created to take over the insolvent Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway. Sold to Glasgow and South Western Railway in 1892.

Appointed by the shareholders to the board of the Forth Bridge Railway.

Director of the West Highland Railway. Responsible for the bridging loan in 1893 which allowed line construction to continue when works in Rannoch Moor proved expensive and construction ceased. The 'Renton Stone', carved by the railway 'navvies', at Rannoch station commemorates his assistance to the company. Drove the last spike of the railway.

Died 1895.

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