<Tr> <Th> Spouse (s) </Th> <Td> Helen Reilly Barbour (1908--1912) (his death) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Children </Th> <Td> Elizabeth Law Barbour Andrews (1910 - 1973) </Td> </Tr> <P> Thomas Andrews, Jr. (7 February 1873--15 April 1912) was an Irish businessman and shipbuilder . He was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland . As the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic, he was travelling on board that vessel during her maiden voyage when the ship hit an iceberg on 14 April 1912 . He perished along with more than fifteen hundred others . His body was never recovered . </P> <P> Thomas Andrews was born at Ardara House, Comber, County Down, in Ireland, to The Rt . Hon . Thomas Andrews, a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and Eliza Pirrie . Andrews was a Presbyterian of Scottish descent, and like his brother, considered himself British . His siblings included John Miller Andrews, the future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and Sir James Andrews, the future Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland . Thomas Andrews lived with his family in Ardara, Comber . In 1884, he began attending the Royal Belfast Academical Institution until 1889 when, at the age of sixteen, he began a premium apprenticeship at Harland and Wolff where his uncle, the Viscount Pirrie, was part owner . </P>

Who came up with the idea of the titanic