page_title: Samuel Cleland Davidson
section_title: Family
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel Cleland Davidson / Family
caption_attribution_description: English: Samuel Cleland Davidson at Killaire House with Richard, Clara (his wife), Kathleen, May, James and cousin Susan on the day he went to visit India 1891. This is a scan of a family photo in the Bleakley Family archive owned by the copyright holder.
context_page_description: Sir Samuel Cleland Davidson, KBE was a British inventor and engineer. Through his career in the tea import business he invented and patented a number of industrial machines and developed the earliest air conditioning systems. He founded the Sirocco Works in Belfast in 1881.
context_section_description: Samuel Cleland Davidson married Clara Mary Coleman in 1873 and they had five children, Annie Davidson 1873–1874 who was born and died in India, Clara May Davidson 1875–1950, James Samuel Davidson 1877–1916, Richard 'Dick' Frederick Davidson 1878–1897 (died of Meningitis aged 18) and Kathleen Davidson 1882–1970. Clara married one of her father's employees, Frederick George Maguire, in 1903. James worked as general manager in his father's business and patented several of his own mechanical engineering developments. He toured the world in 1911 making business deals in Russia, Japan and America, and was expected to eventually take over from his father.  He served as a volunteer with the 1st Battalion North Down Regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force and during World War I he became a captain in the 13th Royal Irish Rifles. James was shot dead by a German sniper on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, aged 39, while being carried back to the British trenches after fighting hard all day and being shot in the knee.
caption: Samuel Cleland Davidson at Killaire House with Richard, Clara (his wife), Kathleen, May, James and cousin Susan on the day he went to visit India 1891.
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