List of Famous people who died in 1909

Walter Angus Bethune Gellibrand was a politician in colonial Tasmania, President of the Tasmanian Legislative Council from 1884 to 1889.

Greville Richard Vernon was a Liberal Unionist politician in Scotland. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Ayrshire from 1886 to 1892. He was the youngest son of Robert Vernon, 1st Baron Lyveden.

Rufus W. Peckham was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1895 until 1909. He was known for his strong use of substantive due process to invalidate regulations of business and property. Peckham's namesake father was also a lawyer and judge, and a representative. His older brother, Wheeler Hazard Peckham (1833–1905), was one of the lawyers who prosecuted Boss Tweed and a failed nominee to the Supreme Court. His other brother, Joseph Henry, died at 17.

Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky was the Director of the Imperial Theatres in Russia from 1881–98 and director of the Hermitage from 1899 to his death in 1909.

Ernest Alexandre Honoré Coquelin was a French actor. Also called Coquelin Cadet, to distinguish him from his brother, he was born at Boulogne, and entered the Conservatoire in 1864.

Kuzman Anastasov Shapkarev,, was a Bulgarian folklorist, ethnographer and scientist from the Ottoman region of Macedonia, author of textbooks and ethnographic studies and a significant figure of the Bulgarian National Revival.

Edmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play The Playboy of the Western World was disapproved due to its bleak ending, depiction of Irish peasants, and idealisation of parricide, leading to hostile audience reactions and riots in Dublin during its opening run at Abbey Theatre, Dublin, which he had co-founded with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. His other major works include "In the Shadow of the Glen" (1903), "Riders to the Sea" (1904), "The Well of the Saints" (1905), and "The Tinker's Wedding" (1909).

Edward Salomon was a German American politician and the 8th Governor of Wisconsin, having ascended to office from the Lieutenant Governorship after the accidental drowning of his predecessor, Louis P. Harvey. He was the first Jewish Governor of Wisconsin.

Futabatei Shimei was a Japanese author, translator, and literary critic. Born Hasegawa Tatsunosuke in Edo, Futabatei's works are in the realist style popular in the mid- to late-19th century. His work Ukigumo is widely hailed as Japan's first modern novel.