Name William Whitelaw Role Politician | Died January 19, 1946 | |
William Whitelaw (15 March 1868 – 19 January 1946) was a Unionist Party politician in Scotland and a long serving railway director and chairman.
He was elected at the 1892 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Perth, but lost his seat at the 1895 general election and was defeated when he stood again in 1900.
Of a Scottish landed gentry family, of Gartshore, Dumbartonshire, and an Old Harrovian and alumnus of Trinity College, Cambridge, Whitelaw was a director of the Highland Railway (HR) from 1898, and Chairman of the HR from 1902 to 1912, and again in 1916. He was later Chairman of the North British Railway (NBR), being appointed in 1912, and when the NBR amalgamated with other railways at the start of 1923 to form the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), Whitelaw was elected unanimously to become the first Chairman of the LNER. He resigned from this post in September 1938.