Samuel Birch (Lord Mayor of London) advocacy of the Protestant ascendency in Ireland. In 1811, he was appointed one of the sheriffs of London, and on 9 November 1814 Birch entered on his duties as lord mayor. Tory though he was, he opposed the Corn Bill of 1815, and presided at a meeting of the livery in common hall on 23 February 1815, when he made a vigorous attack upon the intended prohibition of the free importation of foreign corn. The course he took on this occasion is commemorated by a medal struck in his honour on the obverse side of which is the bust of
Lord Mayor of Liverpool Lord Mayor of Liverpool. For a substantial period of time the Lord Mayor of Liverpool used the prefix of "The Right Honourable" as did the Lord Mayor of London. Sir Albert Woods, Garter Principal King of Arms was of the opinion that this honorific should be enabled, due to the importance of Liverpool as a city second only to London. When Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty succeeded as King of Arms, he expressed the view that his predecessor had made an error. This changed nothing, however, and the city continued to use the prefix up until a Parliamentary statement in 1927. From