Robert James McMordie was a solicitor and Unionist politician who served five consecutive terms as Lord Mayor from 1910 to 1914.

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Rev. J. A. McMordie, Robert was born at Cumran, Co. Down, in 1849. He was educated at Queen’s College, Belfast and practised as a solicitor from 1874 to 1899.

McMordie was elected to the Belfast Corporation in 1907. In his last term as Lord Mayor, McMordie and his wife were granted the freedom of the city.

He was returned as the MP for East Belfast in December 1910, representing the Irish Unionist party. He held the seat until his death on 25 March 1914.

He was the first President of the largely unionist organisation, the Young Citizen Volunteers of Ireland, which had its inaugural meeting in City Hall in 1912.

McMordie died while in post as Lord Mayor.

A sculpture of McMordie, by Frederick Pomeroy, can be found in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.