John Bullough


1837 - 1891

Industrialist. Born in Blackburn (England), the third son of James Bullough (1799 - 1868) who co-invented the Lancashire Loom in 1842, Bullough studied at Queenwood College, an engineering school in Hampshire originally associated with Robert Owen (1771 - 1858), and then at the University of Glasgow, before joining his father's company in 1859. The Lancashire Loom was the world's first automated loom and revolutionised the cotton-weaving industry, greatly improving output and reducing costs. Bullough continued to develop innovative textile machinery, gaining more than twenty patents during his career. Bullough was very successful, equipping mills throughout Britain and overseas, and soon became exceptionally wealthy. In the 1880s, he bought Meggernie Castle in Perthshire and the island of Rum in the Inner Hebrides.

He first married Bertha Schmidlin (1848 - 1913), daughter of a Swiss-German hotelier, in 1869 but this ended in divorce. In 1884 he married Alexandra Marion McKenzie (1865 - 1928), the daughter of a Stornoway banker. Bullough died in London and was initially buried in Lancashire, but later moved by his son Sir George Bullough (1870 - 1939) to the Bullough Mausoleum on Rum. Bullough left Meggernie Castle to his second son, Ian. At time of his death, his company, Howard & Bullough, was the world's largest manufacturer of ring-spinning frames. His portrait is displayed in Kinloch Castle (Rum).


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