William George Ainslie

William George Ainslie MP JP (9 January 1832 – 10 February 1893) was a British Conservative politician, magistrate, ironmaster and stockbroker.

Born in 1832 in Bengal, India, and educated at Sedbergh School, Ainslie was one of sixteen children of Montague Ainslie (1792–1884), a native of Kendal in Cumberland.

Ainslie's father, after attending the East India Company College, entered the East India Company's service and was Political Agent to Lord William Bentinck while he was Governor-General of India (1828–1835), and later returned to Grizedale Hall in Lancashire where he became a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant for the county.

Ainslie's father built a house for him at Ulverston. Set in parkland, the house was named Ford Park in honour of Montague Ainslie's grandfather, the ironmaster William Ford.

Ainslie, like his father before him, entered the service of the East India Company, but spent only a short time in India. In 1849, he entered the family firm of Harrison Ainslie & Co, which traded as Ironmasters at Newland Furnace, Ulverston, Lancashire, and Lorn Furnace, Bonaw, Argyll, and as gunpowder manufacturers at Melfort, near Oban. The firm, which also had shipping interests, had carried the name of Ainslie since 1785. Ainslie was also a partner in the stockbroking firm of R. S. and C. J. Scrimgeour and Co., of Threadneedle Street in the City of London.

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