The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-10
WOMAN
 HEADSGREATEST
 SHIPPING PLANT
Husbands Death Places Absolute Control In
 Hands Of Wife

BELFAST, Aug. 9.-The king is dead; long live the king!" shouted the citizens of Paris in bygone days, be- wailing the death of their ruler and in the same breath welcoming his sue sessor to the throne.
 '@The king is dead; long live the queen !" might be echoed in Belfast to- day with equal, appropriateness. The death of Viscopnt Pirrie, for many years the head of HaEland & Wolff, Ltd, the great shipbuilding concern of Belfast, one of the pioneers of modern commercial shipping, has been in a sense q great loss not alone to Belfast but to many sections of society In all parts of the world, The brief cable announcement from England that his widow is to take his place as head of the board of directors in the firm with which he was so long associated, but faintly suggests the story of human interest of which this remarkable woman is the center.
 Still another woman has crashed into the sphere which men folk used to con- slider so peculiarly their own. Whether the qualities of decision, firmness and and shrewdness which make for sue
 
 those feminine qualities which men la ment in these days as being out of date is rather question. Lady Pirrie, at all events is standing example of the fact that a combination of both sets of attributes is by no means impossible. For more than forty years Lady Pirrie was her husbands advisor in his business affairs and was his constant companion on all his many travels. She was with him to the end and was the last person to whom he gave a con scious glance as he passed away on board the South American liner Ebro, en route from Valparaiso to New York.
 Husbands Admiration
 No one ever paid a more handsome tribute to the fine qualities of Lady Pirrie than her husband. My wife was my inspiration when was young" he said a few years before his death, "and after more than forty years of married life continues to be so, and has been in every sense of the term real helpmate, She has never spared her self and has supported me in the varl- ous undertakings which have been es- sential in the expansion of the Harland 6 Wolff works"
 Lady Pirrie first came into social prominence as Lady Mayoress of her native town. It was a position which she was eminently suited to fill. Native tact, a charming manner and great dignity of feature and department made her one of the most popular women in Ireland. As a hostess she was excep- tional and possessed a faculty for mak- ing friends with most of those with whom she came in contact. Her sig nal services to the community in many spheres of social improvement were crowned in 1904, when she was pre- sented with the freedom of the city of Belfast.
 At this period she was much in the public eye in conhectibn with the foun- dation of the Royal Victoria hospital of Belfast, one of the most efficient in- stitutions of it's kind in the world.
 With all her activities Lady Pirrie as "the modern, woman,", whose so- called emancipation and independence rendered her free of wifely duties. When, during the great war, Lord Pirrie was made Controller General of merchant shipping, his wife came prominently into public notice by her devotion to him through the long weeks and months of excessive labor that came to him by reason of this impor- tant position. It is stated that she appeared every day at his office bring ing his lunch, that she often accom- panied him to his business in the mOrn- ing and called for him in the evenings. It was his custom to take long railway journeys by night, and on these Lady Pirrie frequently accompanied him.
 The daughter of John Carlisle, M. A., of Belfast university, man of great intellectual gifts and scholarly genius i; the sister of Sir Alex Carlisle, one of the prime forces in her hausband's business, and the wife of man. whose native ability and fighting spirit made him the power he was before he died. Lady Pirrie could not but-be gifted.
 Her father, who, as most of the Irish of the north, was of Scoach an- cestry, was a professor at Belfast uni versity, which is the great educational center of Presbyterian Ulster and which has been of great service for, the ad- vancement of commercial life in | lister. It has been the Alma Mater of many great men, including Lord Kelvin and Lord Cairns, the famous lawyer and Lord Chancellor of the English ex. chequer.
 The Pirries and the Carlsiles were oi the old Unitarian stock of Belfast, the same stock from which sprang the United Irish movement of the Eigh' teenth century, giving rise to the re- bellion of '99, and Pitts and Cast in 1901.