Special Guest Announced

Thomas Millar of Belfast, Ireland was an engineer for Harland & Wolff, the British heavy industrial company that specialized in ship building. In the early 1900s, the company designed and built the RMS Olympic and her sister-ships, the RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic. At Harland & Wolff, Millar worked as an engine fitter and helped build the engines for both the Olympic and Titanic.
In 1912, just three months after his wife died leaving the 33-year old Thomas to raise the couple’s two young boys, he decided that he would sail on the Titanic to New York where he would start a new life for himself and his sons. He signed up for a job as an assistant deck engineer on the Titanic and made plans to leave Ireland and start again in America.
Just before boarding the Titanic, Millar gave each of his sons – 11-year old Thomas Jr. and 5-year old William Ruddick – a shiny, new penny. The boys, who were being left with their aunt, were told to keep the pennies and not spend them until their dad returned to get them.
Around 11:40 p.m. on the fourth night Millar was at sea, his plans made a dramatic turn as the result of an iceberg. Thomas Millar’s body was never found after Titanic sank.
Susie Millar, Thomas’ great granddaughter, will visit Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge during March when the museum honors the hardworking, skilled Irish laborers helped build Titanic in Belfast. Millar, who still resides in Belfast, recalls her grandfather, William Ruddick Millar, reading books to her about Titanic when she was a young girl.
Susie Millar, who was a longtime television reporter in Ireland, will arrive in Pigeon Forge March 19 and will be at the Titanic Museum Attraction daily through March 23. In honor of her visit, Titanic Museum attraction has prepared a special display focused on her great grandfather, Thomas Millar. The highlights of that display are the actually pennies handed to Thomas Jr. and William Ruddick by Thomas Millar just before he climbed aboard Titanic.
“I’m proud to keep Thomas Millar’s short story alive,” Susie Millar said. “He was so young – and it’s an honor for me to tell people about him. It’s thrilling for me personally to see how many people are still interested in Titanic.”