William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie

William James Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie, KP, PC, PC (Ire) (31 May 1847 – 7 June 1924) was a leading British shipbuilder and businessman. He was the chairman of the  shipbuilders Harland & Wolff, from 1895 until his death in 1924. Pirrie served as Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1896 to 1898. He was made a nobleman as Baron Pirrie in 1906, designated as a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1908 and made Viscount Pirrie in 1921. 

Lord Pirrie was asked about the quantity of lifeboats on board the ocean liners of Olympic-class in the months just before the Titanic's sinking in 1912. He said that the rafts were meant to save others and that the great ships were not sinkable. He would forever be haunted by this. On other fronts, he was already a contentious figure in Belfast: a Protestant employer linked to a prominent Liberal who supported Ireland's home rule.


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Category:1847 births
Category:1924 deaths
Category:People from Quebec City
Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Category:Ulster Unionist members of the Northern Ireland Assembly