Bill Craig dies aged 86

| Readers 294

I’m not really the person to do justice to an In memoriam post for William Craig but as no one else has noted his death I’ll add this brief biography and thus create a thread for comment:

Rt. Hon. William Craig, solicitor. Born in Cookstown, 2nd December 1924. Educated at Dungannon Royal School, Larne Grammar School, and Queen’s University, Belfast. Served in the Royal Air Force from 1943 to 1946. Founder of Queen’s University Unionist Association in 1950. Admitted as solicitor 1952. Chairman of the Young Unionist Council from 1953 to 1960. An Ulster Unionist member. Sat for Larne division from the byelection of 5th February 1960 until the prorogation of the Parliament in 1972. Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Finance (Chief Whip) from 25th March 1963 to 29th April 1963. Minister of Home Affairs from 29th April 1963 to 22nd July 1964. PC (NI) 1963. Minister of Health and Local Government from 22nd July 1964 to 1st January 1965. Minister of Development from 1st January 1965 to 7th October 1966. Minister of Home Affairs from 7th October 1966 to 11th December 1968 when he was dismissed for alleged support of an independent Northern Ireland. Head of the Ulster Loyalist Association from 1969 to 1972. Ulster Unionist whip withdrawn in May 1970. Founder of Ulster Vanguard in 1972. Founder of the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party in 1973. Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for North Antrim from 1973 to 1974. Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for Belfast, East from the February 1974 general election until the general election of 1979 when he was defeated (while standing as an official Ulster Unionist candidate). Member of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention for Belfast, East from 1975 to 1976. Nominated to the Council of Europe in 1977. Rejoined the Ulster Unionist Party in 1978, but resigned in 1981. Contested Belfast, East in the 1982 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly as an independent Vanguard Unionist.

Note: normal Slugger rules on obituary posts apply (that is, have some respect)

Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Recent posts

Brian O'Neill

Claire Hanna to become the next leader of the SDLP…

Brian O'Neill

My alternative programme for Government: Education…

Mick Fealty

“We must robustly challenge those who still insist violence was justified…”

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated. 

Give a monthly donation Give a one-off donation