J. M. Andrews

John Miller Andrews CH, PC (17 July 1871 – 5 August 1956) was the second Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

Family life

Andrews was born in Comber, County Down, Ireland in 1871,^[1] the eldest child in the family of four sons and one daughter of Thomas Andrews DL, flax spinner, and his wife Eliza Pirrie, a sister of Lord Pirrie, chairman of Harland and Wolff.

He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. In business, Andrews was a landowner, a director of his family linen-bleaching company and of the Belfast Ropeworks.^[1] His brother, Thomas Andrews, who died in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, was managing director of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast; another brother, Sir James Andrews, 1st Baronet, was Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland.

In 1902 he married Jessie (d. 1950), eldest daughter of Bolton stockbroker Joseph Ormrod at Rivington Unitarian Chapel, Rivington, near Chorley, Lancashire, England. They had one son and two daughters. His younger brother, Sir James, married Jessie's sister.

Political career

Andrews served as a MP in the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1921 until 1953 (for County Down constituency from 1921–29 and for Mid-Down from 1929–1953). He was a founder member of the Ulster Unionist Labour Association, which he chaired, and was Minister of Labour from 1921 to 1937. He was Minister of Finance from 1937 to 1940; on the death of Lord Craigavon, in 1940, he became leader of the Unionist Party and the second Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.^[1]

In 1943 backbench dissent forced him from office. He was replaced as Prime Minister by Sir Basil Brooke. Andrews remained, however, the recognised leader of the Party for a further three years. Five years later he became the Grand Master of the Orange Order. From 1949, he was the last parliamentary survivor of the original 1921 Northern Ireland Parliament, and as such was recognised as the Father of the House. He is the only Prime Minister of Northern Ireland not to have been elevated to the peerage; both his successor and predecessor received hereditary viscountcies.

Throughout his life he was deeply involved in the Orange Order, he held the positions of Grand Master of County Down from 1941 and Grand Master of Ireland (1948–1954).^[1] In 1949 he was appointed Imperial Grand Master of The Grand Orange Council of the World.^[2]

John Millar Andrews was a committed and active member of the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland.^[3] He regularly attended Sunday worship in the church built on land donated by his Great-grandfather (James Andrews) in his home town Comber. John Miller Andrews served on the Comber Congregational Committee from 1896 until his death in 1956 (holding the position of Chairman from 1935 onwards). He is buried in the small graveyard adjoining the Church.

He was named after his maternal great-uncle, John Miller of Comber (1795–1883).

References

• Prominent Persons Index card from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
• History of Party leaders at the Ulster Unionist Party website
• The National Archives of the United Kingdom, with reference to the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland and containing a link to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (for subscribers only)
• Scoular, Clive (2004). John M. Andrews: Northern Ireland's Wartime Prime Minister" by Clive Scoular. Printed by W & G Baird Ltd. An online review can be found at [1].