Benjamin Alfred Dobson

Colonel Sir Benjamin Alfred Dobson (1847–1898) was an English textile machinery manufacturer and mayor of Bolton.

His first job was with the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway before he moved to England in 1869 to join Dobson & Barlow.

[3] He married Coralie Palin (1852–1904) who in 1895 became the first woman to wear the official chain and badge as Mayoress of Bolton.

When Dobson was knighted in 1897 he threw a garden party for 1,000 guests in its extensive grounds, which accommodated a model railway.

[1] He travelled extensively on business, visiting Europe, Egypt, India, Japan, Canada, and the United States, and in 1890 went to Constantinople, Turkey, to see the work of the Yedi Koule Cotton Spinning Mills using his firm's machinery.