William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie

William James Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie, KP, PC, PC (Ire) was a leading British shipbuilder and businessman. He was chairman of Harland & Wolff, shipbuilders, between 1895 and 1924, and also served as Lord Mayor of Belfast between 1896 and 1898. He was ennobled as Baron Pirrie in 1906, appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1908 and made Viscount Pirrie in 1921. In the months leading up to the 1912 Sinking of the Titanic, Lord Pirrie was questioned about the number of life boats aboard the Olympic-class ocean liners. He responded that the great ships were unsinkable and the rafts were to save others. This would haunt him forever. In Belfast he was, on other grounds, already a controversial figure: a Protestant employer associated as a leading Liberal with a policy of Home Rule for Ireland.

31 May 1847

Born on the same birth day (31 May): Alida Valli • Andrea de Cesaris • Azealia Banks • Diesel (musician) • Don Ameche • Erik Karlsson • Francis Younghusband • John George II, Elector of Saxony • June Clark (nurse) • Karl Bartos • Mikael Antonsson • Robert Osterloh • Stéphane Caristan • Woo Jin-young

Born in the same month (May 1847): Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery • Henry Demarest Lloyd • Wilhelm Killing