James Kitson (27 October 1807 – 30 June 1885) was an English first-class cricketer and early railway industrialist, founding the locomotive builders Kitson and Company.
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Early life
The son of a publican, he was born in his father's pub, the Brunswick Tavern, in Leeds in October 1807. He acquired some level of education at local schools in Leeds, with Kitson helping out in the family pub as a young child. At 14 he was apprenticed at a local dyeworks, where he acquired a bad injury. Despite his injury he was determined to improve himself and was fascinated by the new emerging railway technology. Kitson joined the newly founded Leeds Mechanical Institute, where he studied chemistry, mathematics and mechanics. He then undertook an apprenticeship at Fenton, Murray and Wood in Leeds, before briefly gaining employment under Robert Stephenson with his company, Robert Stephenson and Company, at Newcastle. He counted the elder George Stephenson among his close friends.