Arthur Birling (played by Pat Carroll)

...was born in Manchester, England in 1852. His father, Richard Birling, was a textile merchant who eventually opened his own shop in Manchester. His mother, Althea Dalton Birling, died of pneumonia in 1860. Arthur lived and worked with his father in Manchester until 1881, when he moved to Brumley and started a textile manufacturing firm after winning a contract to supply the British Army with cloth for uniforms and related items. Arthur met his future wife, Sybil D’Orsay in 1881 through her father, Colonel William D’Orsay of York. Arthur married Sybil in 1884. Their first child, Sheila, on whom he doted, was born in 1886. His wife suffered a miscarriage in 1888, after which their son Eric was born in 1890. Unlike his relationship with his daughter, Arthur never really warmed up to his son Eric, who was quite sickly as a child. Instead, he mainly focused on building his business, which did quite well into the new century, thus affording himself and his family a modicum of financial well-being and comfort.

In 1903, Arthur, who had become relatively successful and well-known as a local businessman, became interested in affecting local mercantile policy, so, on his wife’s urgings, he sought out the office and served as a Brumley Alderman from 1904 to 1906. Birling’s manufacturing business diversified beyond the military contracts and remained generally robust until 1906 when a series of economic setbacks (new taxation, tariffs, labor disputes) caused a severe downturn in his business. Likely as a consequence of these developments, (and perhaps affected by both his father’s death that year and a school scandal involving his son Eric), Birling began evincing signs of emotional as well as physical distress, and was consequently diagnosed with melancholia (though no one outside of the family really knew the true nature of his ailment). He spent the better part of 1906 at home, during which time the business languished, despite the efforts of his wife Sybil and daughter Sheila to pitch in to try to sort things out at the firm. However, quite suddenly, in early 1907, Arthur recovered his health and returned to the factory, and soon thereafter experienced an upturn in business, helped by several new clients abroad. His old form having returned, he re-entered public service as well, serving as Lord Mayor of Brumley from 1909-1910.