James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale, PC, DSc, was an industrialist, locomotive builder, Liberal Party politician and a Member of Parliament for the Holme Valley. He was known as Sir James Kitson from 1886, until he was elevated to the peerage in 1907. Lord Airedale was a prominent Unitarian in Leeds, Yorkshire.

James Kitson was an English first-class cricketer and early railway industrialist, founding the locomotive builders Kitson and Company.