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Workman memorial, Belfast City Cemetery

Memorial to members of the Workman family in Belfast City Cemetery - see J3072 : Belfast City Cemetery. It is a large celtic cross, approximately 8 feet in height.

The memorial records the death of Frank Workman (14th November 1927) and his wife Sara (10th April 1932). Frank Workman (born 16th February 1856) was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution J3374 : RBAI, Belfast before joining the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff as gentleman apprentice in 1873. By 1879 he had left H&W to set up his own shipbuilding yard in Belfast at the tender age of 23. A year later, in 1880, another former H&W apprentice George Clark became his business partner, and the Workman Clark Shipbuilding Company was established. The yard was initially on the north banks of the River Lagan but moved, in 1891, to the rivers southern bank - nothing of the yard remains but it was sited roughly where J3575 : Paint Hall, Belfast docks is located today. Workman Clark constructed a total of 535 ships, varying in size from a 102 ton schooner, built in 1882, to the 20,000 ton yacht 'Bermuda', built in 1927. The peak of production was in 1919 when the yard boasted a workforce of around 10,000. The economic climate of the early 1930's saw a dramatic downturn in fortunes and the yard completed its last ship, the 8,010 ton 'Acarus', in 1935. Workman Clark officially ceased trading in 1937 and the yard was absorbed into the much larger Harland & Wolff.

Outside of shipbuilding, Frank was also prominent in local politics. President of the Belfast Victoria Unionist Association, he was elected to Belfast City Council in 1908 and to High Sheriff of Belfast in 1913.

The memorial also records the death of Frank and Sara's only son Edward (4th December 1886 - 26th Jan 1916), a lieutenant of the 6th Royal Irish Rifles. According to the memorial Edward "defending the honour of his country, died of wounds received at Le Touquet, R.Lys, and lies buried at Etaples, France". Prior to joining up, Edward, educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge University, had managed the Workman Clark yard. He also served in the 6th Battalion East Belfast regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force.

The Workman family resided at 'The Moat', Strandtown, Belfast.

Information above taken from various sources but the best is the description of the memorial from the book 'Written in Stone' by Tom Hartley Link