"The statue and plinth was designed by English sculptor Sir Thomas Brock. Within the grounds of Belfast City Hall are further memorials by Brock; the statue of Queen Victoria and the Belfast men (Titanic) Memorial. Elsewhere, Brock's work is found in London, notably in London including the Imperial Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace.
The statue of Edward Harland shows him in morning dress standing forward on his left foot, resting his left hand on a model of a ships hull that is sat on plans, draped over a half-height plinth. The statue stands on a tiered granite plinth atop a stepped granite base. An inscription, picked out in gold leaf, is carved into the plinth. The plinth carries the inscription:
Sir Edward James Harland Bart
Engineer and Shipbuilder
And
MP for Belfast North
Obit 1895
Erected by his numerous friends
The Edward Harland memorial was unveiled on 23 June 1903 by the Right Honourable the Earl of Glasgow, G.C.M.G., LL.D., president of the Institution of Naval Architects (between 1901 and 1908)."
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"Sir Edward James Harland, 1st Baronet (15 May 1831 – 24 December 1895) was a British shipbuilder and politician. Born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, he was educated at Edinburgh Academy. In 1846, aged 15, he took an apprenticeship at the engineering works of Robert Stephenson and Company in Newcastle upon Tyne. Afterwards he was employed in jobs in Glasgow and again in Newcastle, before moving to Belfast in 1854 to manage Robert Hickson's shipyard at Queen's Island. Four years later he bought the yard and renamed the business Edward James Harland and Company. In 1861 he formed a business partnership with Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, his former personal assistant, creating Harland and Wolff. Later, Harland recruited William James Pirrie as another partner. Edward Harland, Gustav Wolff and William James Pirrie maintained a successful business, receiving regular orders from the White Star Line, before Harland's retirement in 1889, leaving Wolff and Pirrie to manage the shipyard.
Outside his company, Harland served as a Belfast harbour commissioner. In 1885, Harland was granted a knighthood and a baronetcy. Harland was a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party, and served as Mayor of Belfast; later he moved to London and served as Member of Parliament for Belfast North until his death.
Founding of Harland and Wolff -
Edward Harland's new company quickly attracted an order of three boats from John Bibby & Sons. These boats were named Venetian, Sicilian and Syrian; the current company's order book still has the three boats listed as No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. Impressed with the boats, Bibby ordered six more boats from Harland in 1860. The boats that Edward Harland designed were long, had a narrow beam and were flat-bottomed; the boats became known as "Bibby's coffins". On 26 January 1860, Harland married Rosa Matilda Wann, of Vermont, Belfast, who was the daughter of Thomas Wann, a stockbroker and insurance agent. In 1861, Harland chose the 27-year-old Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, his former personal assistant, to become a partner in the firm, forming Harland and Wolff. Harland's company had a prosperous relationship with Thomas Henry Ismay's White Star Line, a prominent shipping company, ensuring regular orders and financial success. Harland's designing skills created ships with flatter bottoms and squarer bilges to increase capacity. According to Edward Harland's obituary in The Times, he designed his company's ocean liners "on the model of a fish swimming through the water." Harland's company received orders during the American Civil War from the Confederate States of America, who bought fast steamers to evade the Union blockade. In 1874 Edward Harland recruited William James Pirrie, a former apprentice at the company as a partner; Pirrie later became chairman of the company, and was given the task of finding buyers and negotiating deals. Harland was once asked the nature of the three men's business relationship and replied:
Well, Wolff designs the ships, Pirrie sells them and I smoke the firm's cigars.
—?Edward Harland,
Harland applied for several patents including, in 1860 for "improvements in constructing and covering the decks of ships and other floating bodies", in 1871 for "improvements in apparatus for propelling vessels", in 1878 for "improvements in screw-propellers." In 1880 Harland and his two partners decided to expand further and built their own engine works. Harland began having less involvement in the running of the shipyard, and in 1889 he retired from daily involvement in the business."
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