Mr William Pidgeon was born at 163 Townsend Street in Dublin, Ireland on 2 June 1865. Coming from a Church of Ireland family, he was the son of Thomas Pidgeon, a marine fireman, and Harriet Hill. 

Described as a baker, on 30 July 1886 in St Anne’s Church, Belfast he was married to Mary Jane Boyd, a seamstress (b. circa 1866). They went on to be the parents of nine children, with six surviving infancy. 

By 1901 the family were living at 35 Kingswood Street in east Belfast and William was described as a plater’s helper. By 1911 the home address was 63 Chadolly Street, east Belfast and William was then described as a labourer in an ironworks. 

Pidgeon’s ship prior to Titanic had been the Duke of C’land (Cumberland?). He joined Titanic at Belfast for the delivery trip to Southampton where he then disembarked.

In September 1912 William Pidgeon was a signatory of the Ulster Covenant, a petition signed by nearly 500,000 citizens opposing Irish Home Rule. 

William Pidgeon remained in Belfast and spent the next few years at 63 Chadolly Street. Widowed in 1918 he moved to 49 Chadolly Street but died in a Belfast sanitorium on 19 December 1922. He and his wife are buried in Dundonald Cemetery (plot E5 794).