Roe, Henry (1826–94), distiller and philanthropist, was born in Dublin, where his family had been involved in the distilling and brewing business since the 1750s and had acquired a seventeen-acre site off James's St. In 1863 Henry Roe, and his brother, George, inherited George Roe & Co., following the death of their uncle, George Roe, alderman and previously lord mayor of Dublin (1843). No details of their parents are known.
Roe's cousin, the Rev. Edward Seymour, was precentor at Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, and when plans were being formulated to renovate the cathedral, he approached Roe and told him of the financial difficulties involved. In March 1871 Roe wrote to Archbishop Richard Chenevix Trench (qv), offering to fund the restoration and later offering also to fund the construction of the new synod hall on St Michael's Hill. This programme of restoration, under the direction of the eminent architect George Edmund Street (qv), entailed massive expense. By the time the cathedral reopened in 1878, Roe had donated £160,000 to the cathedral project and £60,000 to the building of the synod hall. He had also bought new silver and a new ring of bells and set up a choir endowment. It is unlikely he realised that the project would be so costly, and the expense had drastic effects on his own business. He sold off a large section of his James's St. site to the Guinness brewery, and the family company later went out of business. He died 21 November 1894 at Mount Annville Park, Dundrum, Co. Dublin.
While the Christ Church cathedral project was still ongoing, he published several articles on the restoration in the Irish Builder. George Edmund Street's The cathedral of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church, Dublin: an account of the restoration of the fabric &c. (1883), was dedicated to Henry Roe.