Andrew Mitchell Torrance

Andrew Mitchell Torrance (1845 – 4 February 1909) was a Scottish Liberal Party politician.

Background He was born in Old Cumnock, East Ayrshire in 1845. He was educated at Cumnock parish school. In 1861 he was apprenticed to Peter Kelso & Co., muslin manufacturers of Glasgow. In 1863, moving to London, he worked for Smith, Anderson & Co. In 1875, he became a partner and the firm changed its name to Miller, Son, & Torrance. He was given a knighthood in 1906. and served as Chairman in 1901–02. He was also involved in Islington Borough municipal politics, being elected to the council and serving as mayor of Islington

Parliamentary career Torrance first stood for Parliament at the 1900 general election in Islington East (his London County Council seat), but lost by a wide margin to the sitting Conservative MP Benjamin Louis Cohen.

At the next general election, in January 1906 he chose to contest a seat in his native Scotland and was elected as the MP for Glasgow Central (UK Parliament constituency), defeating the sitting Conservative MP John George Alexander Baird by a margin of 3.4%.