On Thursday 25 March, Harland & Wolff (Belfast) commemorated the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of its First World War plaques.
Made of Bronze and standing 5ft high and 3ft wide, the plaques, titled ‘Role of Honour’, commemorate the 494 employees who fell in the Great War (1914-1918).
First unveiled at our Belfast yard on Friday 25th March 1921 by Lady Pirrie – an Irish public figure and philanthropist as well as the first woman Justice of the Peace in Belfast – the plaques were originally located on the wall of the Harland & Wolff HQ Building on Queens Road (which is how the Titanic Hotel).
They were moved in 2000 after Harland & Wolff vacated the premises and now sit at the current Harland & Wolff (Belfast) Main Office.
This year, a small internal ceremony was conducted in which a poem was read. Said to have been penned by a shipyard worker, the poem entitled, ‘To Their Memory’ by Thomas Morrison was most notably read at the first unveiling.
To conclude the ceremony, a minute of silence was also observed.
