James MacBain

Sir James MacBain (19 April 1828 – 4 November 1892) was a politician in colonial Victoria (Australia), President of the Victorian Legislative Council.

MacBain was the youngest son of Smith MacBain, of Invergordon, Ross-shire, Scotland, and was born at Kinrhive in that county in 1828. He served a business apprenticeship in Inverness. In 1853 he married Jessie Smith, youngest daughter of William Smith, of Forres, and sister of the late Duncan Smith, manager of the Oriental Bank Corporation at Bombay.

Immediately afterwards MacBain came to Melbourne, where he entered the service of the Bank of New South Wales. He quit shortly after and became partner in Melbourne of the mercantile and squatting agency firm of Gibbs, Ronald & Co. He was a member of the Bryan O'Loghlen Government without portfolio from August 1881 to March 1883, in which year he visited Europe and acted as chairman of the Victorian Commission at the Amsterdam Exhibition. He was knighted in May 1886, and having in the meantime acted as president or the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, was created K.C.M.G. in 1889.