Joseph Ruston

{{Short description|English engineer, manufacturer and Liberal politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=November 2016}}

Joseph Ruston (1835 – 11 June 1897){{Rayment-hc||3|date=March 2012}} was an English engineer and manufacturer and Liberal Party politician, though he split from the party over Home Rule and retired.obit. The Automotor and Horseless Carriage Journal, June 1897, p367

File:Ruston Proctor and Co traction engine sn 33189.JPG

Ruston was the son of Robert Ruston a farmer of Chatteris, Isle of Ely and his wife Margaret Seward. He was educated at Wesley College, Sheffield and became an apprentice at the Sheffield cutlery firm of George Wostenholme. On completing his apprenticeship in 1856 with a good commercial training and having a modest inheritance from his father's estate he went into business with Burton and Proctor of Lincoln. He thus became head of the firm of Ruston, Proctor and Company, agricultural implement makers and engineers.{{Cite web |url=http://www.oldengine.org/members/ruston/History1.htm |title=Ray Hooley's - Ruston-Hornsby - Engine Pages |access-date=5 September 2009 |archive-date=25 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625043612/http://www.oldengine.org/members/ruston/History1.htm |url-status=dead }} The company grew in size until it employed some 2000 people and in his lifetime produced 20,800 engines, 19,700 boilers, 10,900 threshing machines, and 1350 corn mills.{{cite web|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Joseph_Ruston|title=Joseph Ruston|publisher= Graces Guide|access-date= 10 June 2017}}

Ruston was a J.P. and was elected Mayor of Lincoln for 1869–70.[https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1886londuoft Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886] He was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln in a by-election in June 1884.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|authorlink= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1832–1885

|orig-year=1977

|edition= 2nd

|year=1989

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-26-4

|page=188

}} He was re-elected at the 1885 general election but did not stand again in 1886 because he disapproved of Gladstone's proposals for Home Rule.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|authorlink= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918

|orig-year=1974

|edition= 2nd

|year=1989

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-27-2

|page=137

}}

His decorations included the Cross of the Legion of Honour and the Order of Osmanieh. He was appointed High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1891.{{London Gazette|issue=26146|page=1653|date=24 March 1891}} He was a benefactor to the town of Lincoln, funding the building of the drill hall for the local volunteers, a children's ward at the Lincoln County Hospital, and the restoration of the monument in Lincoln Cathedral to the memory of Queen Eleanor.