JAMES CRAIG, 1ST VISCOUNT CRAIGAVON

'James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon' Bt (8 January 1871 - 24 November 1940) was a prominent Irish unionist politician, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
James Craig was born at Sydenham, Belfast, the son of a wealthy whiskey distiller. His father owned a large house, Craigavon, overlooking Belfast Lough.
He was educated at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Scotland, and after working as a stockbroker served with the British Army in the Second Boer War. On his return to Ireland he was Member of Parliament for East Down from 1906-1918. From 1918 to 1921 he represented Mid Down, and served in government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions (1919-1920) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (1920-1921).
Lord Craigavon rallied the Ulster unionist opposition to Irish Home Rule in Ulster before the First World War, organising the paramilitary Ulster Volunteers and buying arms from Imperial Germany. He succeeded Edward Carson as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in February 1921.
In the 1921 Northern Ireland general election, the first ever, he was elected to the newly created Northern Ireland House of Commons as member for County Down.
In June 1921 Craig became the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. A dedicated member of the Orange Order and staunchly Protestant^[1], he famously stated, in 1935, in response to Éamon de Valera's 1934 assertion that Ireland was a "Catholic nation"^[2]
He was made a baronet in 1918, and was in 1927 created 'Viscount Craigavon', of Stormont in the County of Down. He was also the recipient of honorary degrees from the Queen's University of Belfast (1922) and Oxford University (1926).
Lord Craigavon was still prime minister when he died peacefully at his home at [1] Glencraig, County Down in 1940. He was buried on the Stormont Estate, and was succeeded as leader of the Northern Ireland Government by the Minister of Finance John Miller Andrews.
His wife, Cecil Mary Nowell Dering Craig (The Viscountess Craigavon), née Tupper, President of the 'Ulster Women's Unionist Council', was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1941.

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References

1. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/crights/pdfs/truth.pdf
2. Bardon, Jonathan (1992), ''A History of Ulster'' p. 538

See also

★ Belfast blitz

★ The Emergency

★ List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords