Blue plaque honour for famed Sirocco founder
THE Co Down man who founded Belfast’s Sirocco engineering works is to be honoured by the Ulster History Circle.
A blue plaque in honour of Sir Samuel Cleland Davidson (1846-1921) will be unveiled by his great grandson at First Rosemary Street Presbyterian Church in Belfast at 11.30am tomorrow
The engineer was born in the townland of Ballymechan, close to Holywood, to James and Mary Davidson.
He was educated at RBAI and left school aged 15, after which he entered the office of an engineering firm.
His father later purchased a share in a Indian tea estate and Samuel was sent to assist in its management aged 18.
He saw it an opportunity to invent a mechanical means of drying the tea leaf, rather than rolling by hand.
It was during one of these experiments, when a large volume of hot air was produced, that the name ‘Sirocco’ was to become the Davidson trademark.
Sir Samuel returned to Belfast in 1874 and, from a small building in the east of the city, perfected his Sirocco tea dryer. The Sirocco engineering works was established in 1881 with a dozen workmen, growing to more than 1,000 in the subsequent decades.
The engineer was knighted in June 1921 but died just two months later at his home in Seacourt in Bangor.
Chris Spurr, chairman of the Ulster History Circle, said: “The Ulster History Circle is delighted to commemorate this renowned inventor and engineer with a blue plaque and is grateful both to First Rosemary Street Presbyterian Church for their valued assistance and to the Ulster-Scots Agency for their financial support.”