Ulster Unionist Party - For All Of Us

Colonel Edward Saunderson (1905 - 1906)
Edward James Saunderson was the first leader of modern Ulster Unionism. He was born in 1837 at Castle Saunderson, the family estate near Belturbet, County Cavan. As a Liberal he became MP for County Cavan in 1865. He lost his seat to a Home Ruler in 1874, but eleven years later he became MP for North Armagh, a seat that he retained until his death in 1906. From 1886 he assumed the leadership of the Irish and Ulster Unionist MPs at Westminster. A statue of Colonel Saunderson was erected in Market Street, Portadown, in 1910, and depicts his opposition to Home Rule.

Walter Long (1906 - 1910) (later Viscount Long)
The son of a Wiltshire landowner, Walter Hume Long was born in Bath in 1854. Both his mother and wife were of Southern Irish Unionist stock and were responsible for his interest in the Unionist cause. He entered the House of Commons as a Conservative in 1880 and represented a wide variety of different constituencies, including South County Dublin between 1906 and January 1910. He held high office almost continuously from 1895. He was briefly Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1905, the leader of the Irish Unionist Parliamentary Party between 1906 and 1910, Colonial Secretary between 1916 and 1919 and First Lord of the Admiralty from 1919 until 1921. He opposed Lloyd George’s attempt to ‘solve’ the Irish problem in the immediate aftermath of the Easter rebellion of 1916. In 1919 he chaired the Cabinet committee that drafted the Government of Ireland Bill. Raised to the peerage as Viscount Long of Wraxall, he died in 1924.

Sir Edward Carson (1910 - 1921) (later Lord Carson)
Edward Henry Carson was born in Dublin in 1854. He was elected as a Liberal Unionist MP for Dublin University in 1892. In 1910, as the threat of Home Rule loomed large on the political horizon, Carson’s parliamentary colleagues invited him to lead them in the impending struggle. He was the first signatory of the Ulster Covenant in 1912. In 1918 he declined to contest his Dublin University seat and was elected instead for the Duncairn Division of Belfast. He had a distinguished legal and political career, being Solicitor General for Ireland in 1892, Solicitor General for England in 1900, and Attorney General in 1915. Between 1916 and 1917 he was First Lord of the Admiralty and then a member of the war cabinet. At the UUC AGM in 1921 Carson proposed Sir James Craig as leader of the Party. He was knighted in 1900 and was created Lord Carson of Duncairn in 1921. On his death in 1935 he was honoured with a state funeral and was buried in St Anne’s Cathedral, the only person to date to have received such an honour.

Sir James Craig (1921 - 1940) (later Lord Craigavon)
James Craig was born in Sydenham, Belfast, in 1871. From 1906 to 1918 he was MP for East Down and between 1918 and 1921 he represented Mid Down. During the third Home Rule crisis he was Carson’s principal lieutenant. In December 1916 Craig became a Junior Whip in the Lloyd George coalition government and Treasurer of the Household. Between 1918 and 1921 Craig was successively Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty (where Walter Long was his immediate superior). These positions could reasonably be regarded as preparation for more senior ministerial appointment. He represented County Down in the Northern Ireland Parliament between 1921 and 1929 and between 1929 and his death in 1940 he represented North Down. He was created Viscount Craigavon in 1927. He is buried near Parliament Buildings in the Stormont estate.

John M. Andrews (1940 - 1946)
John Miller Andrews was born in Comber, County Down, in 1871 and followed a varied business career. His brother, Thomas Andrews, was the designer of the Titanic. Between 1921 and 1929 he was MP for County Down in the Northern Ireland Parliament, and then, between 1929 and 1953, for Mid-Down. He was Minister of Labour from 1921 to 1937 and Minister of Finance from 1937 to 1940 when he succeeded Sir James Craig as Prime Minister and Leader of the Party in 1940. He resigned as Prime Minister in 1943, but stayed as Party Leader until 1946. He died in 1956.

Sir Basil Brooke (1946 - 1963) (later Lord Brookeborough)
Basil Stanlake Brooke was born in 1888 on the family estate at Colebrooke in County Fermanagh. He inherited the baronetcy in 1907. During service in World War I he was awarded the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre. He briefly served as a member of the Northern Ireland Senate in 1921 before resigning to become Fermanagh County Commandant of the Ulster Special Constabulary to combat IRA insurgency. He became MP for Lisnaskea in 1929 and served as Minister for Agriculture from 1933 and Minister of Commerce and Production from 1941 before becoming Prime Minister in 1943. He was created Viscount Brookeborough in 1952. He resigned as Prime Minster in 1963 owing to ill health and died ten years later.

Terence O'Neill (1963 - 1969) (later Lord O'Neill)
Terence Marne O’Neill was born in County Antrim in 1914, the son of Captain Arthur O’Neill, the first MP killed in World War I. After military service in the Irish Guards he won the Stormont seat of Bannside in a by-election in 1946 and retained the seat until his resignation in 1970. He held a number of junior positions before becoming Minister of Home Affairs and then Minister for Finance in 1956, and Prime Minister in 1963. He resigned in 1969 and was elevated to the House of Lords in 1970, taking the title Lord O’Neill of the Maine. He died in 1990.

James Chichester-Clark (1969 - 1971) (later Lord Moyola)
James Dawson Chichester-Clark was born in 1923 at Moyola, the family home near Castledawson. He resigned a senior military career in the Irish Guards to enter politics. He took over the South Londonderry seat in the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1960 from his Aunt, Dame Dehra Parker, in an uncontested by-election. He became Minister of Agriculture in 1967 and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1969. He resigned in 1971 and became a life peer, taking the title Lord Moyola of Castledawson. He died in 2002.

Brian Faulkner (1971 - 1974) (later Lord Faulkner)
Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner was born in Helen’s Bay, County Down in 1922. In 1949 he entered political life by winning the East Down seat in the Northern Ireland Parliament, thereby becoming the youngest ever Stormont MP. He held a number of junior and senior offices including Minister of Home Affairs in 1959 when he was responsible for security during the IRA’s campaign of 1956—62, but it was as Minister of Commerce between 1963 and 1969 that he made his reputation. He became Party Leader in 1971 and was Prime Minister until the dissolution of Stormont in 1972. In 1977 he became a life peer taking the title Lord Faulkner of Downpatrick. He died in the same year as a result of a riding accident.

Harry West (1974 - 1979)
Henry William West was born in 1917 in County Fermanagh. He served for many years as a local government councillor before being elected to represent Enniskillen in the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1954. A former President of the Ulster Farmers’ Union, he served as Minister of Agriculture from 1960 to 1967 and from 1971 to 1972. Between 1973 and 1976 he represented Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Constitutional Convention. Between February and October 1974 he briefly represented the same constituency at Westminster. He became Party Leader in 1974, resigned in 1979 and died in 2004.

James Molyneaux (1979 - 1995) (later Lord Molyneaux)
James Henry Molyneaux was born in Killead, County Antrim in 1920 and served with the RAF in World War II. He was first elected to Westminster in 1970 representing South Antrim and then the new constituency of Lagan Valley from 1983. In 1982 James Molyneaux led the Party into the Northern Ireland Assembly, which sat until it was dissolved in 1986, and in 1985 he led the Ulster Unionist MPs in resigning their seats in protest at the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1982, was knighted in 1996 and, as Lord Molyneaux of Killead, became a life peer in 1997, when he stood down from his Parliamentary seat at the General Election.

David Trimble (1995 - 2005)
William David Trimble was born in 1944 in Bangor, County Down. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention in 1975 representing South Belfast. In 1989 he became an Honorary Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Party. In 1990 he won the Upper Bann Westminster seat in a by-election and was elected Party Leader in 1995. He became First Minister Designate in 1998 and then First Minister at the establishment of the Assembly in 1999. His efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland were recognised by the award of a Nobel Peace Prize in 1998.