In 1850 he was Director of Muir Brown & Co based ar 296 St Vincent St.[1]
He was a director of A & W Arthur, a warehouse company in Glasgow. He lived at 20 Buccleuch Street in the city.[2]
In 1869 he succeeded Sir James Lumsden as Lord Provost of Glasgow. He was succeeded in turn in 1871 by Sir James Watson.[3]
On 18 February 1871 he is recorded as officially sanctioning the new Glasgow Royal Infirmary.[4]
In 1880 he is listed as a Director of Muir Brown & Co and was living at 1 Crown Gardens in Dowanhill.
In 1873 he is listed as a Freemason.[5]
His daughter Isobel McRae Arthur married Charles Ralph Dubs, son of Henry Dubs. She remarried Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Robert Wallace, of Cloncaird Castle.