Stratton MIlls | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Belfast North | |
In office 8 October 1959 –8 February 1974 | |
Preceded by | H. Montgomery Hyde |
Succeeded by | John Carson |
Personal details | |
Born | 1 July 1932 |
Political party | Ulster Unionist (until 1972) Conservative (1972-1973) Alliance (1973-present) |
William Stratton Mills (born 1 July 1932) is a retired solicitor and former politician in Northern Ireland. [1]
Mills was the first Member of Parliament (MP) for the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland to sit in the British House of Commons.
The son of Dr V.J.S. Mills,Mills was educated at Campbell College,Belfast and Queen's University,Belfast. A solicitor by profession,Mills was elected as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP for Belfast North in the 1959 general election. He held his seat in subsequent elections,but in 1972 he refused to join the other UUP MPs in resigning the Conservative Party whip. He instead resigned from the UUP,describing himself as an independent Unionist and Conservative MP. [2]
In August 1969,at the outset of The Troubles,Mills travelled with Robin Bailie to the United States to counter the fund raising efforts of Bernadette Devlin,and to promote the Unionist point of view to an American audience. [3] Mills referred to Miss Devlin as "a female Castro in a miniskirt" and questioned if the funds collected were to be used for Catholic relief or to further violence. Miss Devlin responded that the $200,000 in contributions was to be administered by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association for the benefit of riot victims. [4]
In December 1971,Mills derided the Republic of Ireland for being a safe haven for members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He stated that extradition requests for Dublin to turn over IRA members living in the Republic were ignored and on 22 occasions where British security forces came under fire from IRA members stationed at the nearby border of the Irish Republic and that Irish security forces sat by and took no action in stopping them. He also pointed out how IRA members operated freely in the Republic,including collecting money from local supporters,training camps,public meetings,and recruiting volunteers. He also pointed out how much of the gelignite used as explosives in detonating targets in Northern Ireland originated from the Republic:
[S]ome 60 percent of the gelignite used in Northern Ireland has come from Southern Ireland,and the security authorities believe that the figure might well be higher than that because of the difficulty of definite identification in all cases. In Northern Ireland steps are taken to control the use and distribution of gelignite. Certain steps have been taken recently in the South,but there is a great need for much tighter measures. [5]
In 1973,Mills joined the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. [6] He retired from the House in 1974. He was also a partner in a solicitors firm,and served on Northern Ireland's Historic Buildings Council. Mills is a member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and the Irish Georgian Society. He lives in Malone Park,Belfast. [7]
Following the death of Lord Morris of Aberavon on 5 June 2023,Mills became the last surviving former MP elected in the 1959 general election and the surviving former MP with the earliest date of first election. [8]
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905,emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson,it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland,it was the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles,during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).
Sir Jeffrey Mark Donaldson is a British politician who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2021 to 2024 and leader of the DUP in the UK House of Commons from 2019 to 2024. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lagan Valley since 1997.
James Henry Molyneaux,Baron Molyneaux of Killead,KBE,PC,often known as Jim Molyneaux,was a unionist politician from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1979 to 1995,and as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Antrim from 1970 to 1983,and later Lagan Valley from 1983 to 1997. An Orangeman,he was also Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution from 1971 to 1995,and a leading member of the Conservative Monday Club.
John Robert Beggs,commonly known as Roy Beggs,is a Northern Irish unionist politician and former teacher who was a Larne Borough Councillor from 1973 to 2014,representing the district of Larne Area B and its successor,Larne Lough.
William Martin Smyth is a Northern Irish unionist clergyman-politician. An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland,he was Grand Master of the Orange Order during much of the Troubles and served as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Belfast South from 1982 to 2005. He was also a vice-president of the Conservative Monday Club.
Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner,Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick,,was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland,from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive of the short-lived Northern Ireland Executive during the first half of 1974.
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Northcote House in Sunningdale Park,located in Sunningdale,Berkshire,on 9 December 1973. Unionist opposition,violence and a general strike caused the collapse of the agreement in May 1974.
Kenneth Wiggins Maginnis,Baron Maginnis of Drumglass,is a Northern Irish politician and life peer. Since December 2020,he has been suspended from the House of Lords,where he formerly sat for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). He was the Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1983 to 2001.
Sir James Alexander Kilfedder,usually known as Sir Jim Kilfedder,was a Northern Irish unionist politician.
Mid Ulster is a parliamentary constituency in the UK House of Commons. The current MP is Francie Molloy of Sinn Féin.
William "Bill" Craig was a Northern Irish politician best known for forming the Unionist Vanguard movement.
Reginald Norman Morgan Empey,Baron Empey,,best known as Reg Empey,is a Northern Irish unionist politician who was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2005 to 2010. He was the chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party from 2012 to 2019. Empey was also twice Lord Mayor of Belfast and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 1998 to 2011.
Robert Jonathan Bradford was a Methodist Minister and a Vanguard Unionist and Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for the Belfast South constituency in Northern Ireland until his assassination by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 14 November 1981.
Ulster Protestant Action (UPA) was an Ulster loyalist political party and Protestant fundamentalist vigilante group in Northern Ireland that was founded in 1956 and re-formed as the Protestant Unionist Party in 1966.
The Belfast South by-election was held on 4 March 1982 following the death of Robert Bradford,Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament for Belfast South.
William John Stewart was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland who formed a Progressive Unionist Association to protest "autocratic" tendencies in the Unionist government and its lack of action on unemployment.
The Northern Ireland Conservatives is a section of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party that operates in Northern Ireland. The Conservative are the only major British party to field candidates within Northern Ireland and typically contests only a fraction of seats in elections. The party won 0.03% of the vote in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election and 0.7% of the vote in the 2019 United Kingdom General election in Northern Ireland.
Thompson Donald was a Northern Irish Unionist politician.
A by-election for the UK House of Commons constituency of Mid Ulster in Northern Ireland was held on 7 March 2013. The election was triggered by the resignation of Martin McGuinness,who had been elected to the seat in 1997 as the Sinn Féin candidate. The election was won by Francie Molloy,also of Sinn Féin.
Brian J. H. McRoberts was a solicitor and unionist politician in Northern Ireland.