James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale

James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale PC, DSc (22 September 1835 – 16 March 1911) was a British politician of the Liberal Party, first a Member of Parliament and then a peer. He was known as Sir James Kitson, Bt from 1886, until he was elevated to the peerage in 1907. He was a prominent Unitarian in Leeds.

He was the younger son of James Kitson of Elmete Hall (1807–1885), a locomotive manufacturer who founded Kitson and Company, and his wife Ann Newton. James (Jnr.) went to school in Wakefield and studied chemistry and natural sciences at University College London.

With his elder brother, Frederick William (b.1829), James (Jnr.) developed an iron foundry into a large company; Monkbridge Iron and Steel Works. Frederick William's son was Frederick James Kitson, Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1908, and owner of Gledhow Grove who died in 1935. Frederick James' wife, Florence, died on 26 April 1943, the year that the lord mayor of Leeds was Jessie Beatrice Kitson (b.1877) - first cousin of Frederick James Kitson. Jessie Beatrice Kitson was the daughter of John Hawthorn Kitson (d.1899) who was also the brother of James (Jnr.). Like his father, niece and nephew, James Kitson (Jnr.) had also been Mayor/Lord Mayor of Leeds: in 1896 and 1897.

The success of the iron and steel works gave James the time, money and influence to pursue other interests including politics, becoming President of the Leeds Liberal Association, and running the election campaign for William Ewart Gladstone. He became an MP himself in 1892, continuing to 1907, supporting education, Irish home rule, and old age pensions. He was a member of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He supported local education, notably the Mechanics' Institute and the Yorkshire College, the forerunner of the University of Leeds, which awarded him an honorary doctorate (DSc) in 1904. He was also the first Lord Mayor of Leeds (1896 and 1897).

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