James Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola

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The Rt Hon. The Lord Moyola, PC
5th Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
In office May 1, 1969 – March 23, 1971
Preceded by	Terence O'Neill
Succeeded by	Brian Faulkner
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament for South Londonderry
In office 9 July 1960 – 30 March 1972
Preceded by	Dehra Parker
Succeeded by	Parliament Prorogued
Born	February 12, 1923(1923-02-12) County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Died	February 12, 2002 (aged 79)
Political party	Ulster Unionist Party

James Dawson Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, PC, DL (February 12, 1923 – May 17, 2002) was the fifth Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and eighth leader of the Ulster Unionist Party between 1969 and March 1971. He was Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament for South Londonderry for 12 years beginning at the by-election to replace his grand mother in 1960. He stopped being a MP when the Stormont Parliament was prorogued by the UK Government due to the start of the Northern Ireland troubles in 1972.

Chichester-Clark's election as UUP Leader resulted from the sudden resignation of Terence O'Neill after the ambiguous result of the preceding general election. His term in office was dominated by both internal Unionist struggles, seeing the political emergence of Ian Paisley from the right and Alliance Party of Northern Ireland from the left, and an emergent Nationalist resurgence. In March 1971, with his health suffering under the strain of the growing political strife, he resigned - having failed to secure extra military resources from the British Government.

Contents 1 Family background and early life 2 Military career 3 Political life 4 Minister 5 Prime Minister 6 Resignation and beyond 7 Peerage and later life 8 Ancestors 9 See also 10 References

[edit] Family background and early life

Lord Moyola was born as James Dawson Clark at Moyola Park, Castledawson, County Londonderry, his family's ancestral home. He was the eldest of three children of James J. Lenox-Conyngham Clark and Marion Caroline Dehra, née Chichester. His brother was Robin Chichester-Clark and his sister, Penelope Hobhouse, the garden writer and historian.

In 1924 James Clark, Snr. changed the family name to Chichester-Clark by deed poll, thus preventing the old ascendancy name Chichester (his wife's maiden name) from dying out. On his mother's side the family are descended from the Donegall Chichesters and were the heirs of the Dawsons of Castledawson, who had originally held Moyola Park.

Educated, against his own wishes, at Selwyn House, Broadstairs , and then Eton, Chichester-Clark left school and entered adulthood in the midst of the Second World War. On joining the Irish Guards, the regiment of his grandfather, in Omagh he began his year-long training before receiving his commission.^[1]

He married widow Moyra Haughton QC (née Morris) in 1959: they had two daughters, in addition to Lady Moyola's son from her previous marriage.

[edit] Military career

Chichester-Clark’s time as a soldier was, by comparison with some of his contemporaries, unremarkable. An Officer in the Irish Guards, he did participate in the Anzio landings, however only briefly. He was injured early in a campaign that all but wiped out his Company, and spent most of his war in hospital recovering from injuries, the effects of which stayed with him throughout his later life. Following the war his military career took him from the dull duties of the post war occupation of Germany, to Canada as Aide-de-camp to Earl Alexander of Tunis while Governor General of Canada. The popularity and supreme competence of his senior officer have made this uneventful two-year period of Chichester-Clark’s life the most remarkable element of his pre-parliamentary career. On returning from Canada, Chichester-Clark continued in the Army for several years, refusing promotion to seniority before retiring a Major in 1960.^[2]

[edit] Political life

In an uncontested by-election in 1960, he took over the South Londonderry seat in the Northern Ireland Parliament held by his grandmother, Dame Dehra Parker, since 1933. She had been MP until 1929 when she stood down for a first time. Chichester-Clark's father, replaced her in 1929, however he suddenly died in 1933. Dame Dehra willingly returned to Northern Ireland from England, and won the ensuing by-election. He retained the seat for the remainder of the Parliaments existence, and so the South Londonderry area was represented by three generations of the same family for the entire period of the Northern Ireland House of Commons. Between 1929 and the last election in 1969, the family was only challenged for the seat on two occasions, the second being in 1969, when future Westminster MP Bernadette Devlin stood, attracting 39% of the vote^[3]

Chichester-Clark made his maiden speech on February 8th 1961 during the Queen’s speech debate.

[edit] Minister

For the remainder of Lord Brookeborough's Premiership, Chichester-Clark remained on the back benches. It was not until 1963, when Terence O'Neill became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, that Chichester-Clark was appointed assistant whip, and a month later when Bill Craig was promoted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Chichester-Clark took over as Government Chief Whip. Accounts of the period are that Chichester-Clark enjoyed the Whip’s office more than any other he was to subsequently hold in politics. This despite including references to anti O’Neill MP and future DUP Westminster MP, Johnny McQuade, and the occasional “good row”.^[4][5] From the outset, O’Neill took the unusual decision to allow Chichester-Clark to attend and speak at all cabinet meetings while Chief Whip.^[6] Proving a competent parliamentary party administrator, O’Neill added Leader of the House of Commons to Chichester-Clark’s duties in October 1966, a promotion that made him a full member of the Cabinet. He was also sworn into the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in 1966.

In 1967, O'Neill sacked his Minister of Agriculture, Harry West, for ministerial impropriety,^[7][8] and Chichester-Clark was appointed in his place, a position he retained for two quiet years. On April 23rd 1969, he resigned from the Cabinet one day prior to a crucial Parliamentary Party meeting, claiming that he disagreed with the Prime Minister's decision to grant universal suffrage in local government elections at that time. He stated that he disagreed not with the principle of one man one vote but with the timing of the decision, having the previous day expressed doubts over the expediency of the measure in Cabinet^[9]. It has since been suggested that his resignation was in order to accelerate O'Neill's own resignation, and to improve his own position in the jostling to succeed him^[10].

O'Neill "finally walked away"^[11] five days later on the 28 April 1969. In order to beat his only serious rival, Brian Faulkner, Chichester-Clark needed the backing of O'Neill-ite MPs elected at the Northern Ireland general election, 1969, to which end he attended a tea party in O'Neill's honour only days after he had caused his resignation.^[12]

[edit] Prime Minister

He beat Faulkner in the Ulster Unionist Party leadership election, 1969 by one vote on 1 May 1969, with his predecessor using his casting vote in the tied election for his distant cousin because "Faulkner had been stabbing him in the back for a lot longer"^[13]. Although Faulkner believed, until his death, that he had been the victim of an upper-class conspiracy to deny him the premiership, he became a high profile and loyal member of Chichester-Clark's cabinet.

His premiership was punctuated by the civil unrest that erupted after August 1969. He suffered from the effects of the Hunt Committee report, which recommended the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary, which his Government accepted to the consternation of many Unionists.

In April 1970 his predecessor and another Unionist MP resigned their seats in the NI House of Commons. The by-election campaigns were punctuated by major liberal speeches by senior government figures like Brian Faulkner, Jack Andrews and the Prime Minister himself. Ian Paisley's Protestant Unionist Party, however, took both seats in the House of Commons. Later the same month the O'Neill-ite group, the New Ulster Movement, became the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, and his party began passing votes of no confidence in him.

As the civil unrest grew, the British Government, particularly the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, became increasingly involved in Northern Ireland's affairs, forcing Chichester-Clark's hand on many issues. These included the disbanding of the 'B' Specials and, importantly, the handing over of operational control of the security forces to the Army General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland.

[edit] Resignation and beyond

In March 1971 the IRA lured three off duty soldiers from a pub in Belfast to a lane way outside the city, where they killed them. Chichester-Clark flew to London on the 18 March 1971 to request a new security initiative from the new British Prime Minster Edward Heath, who offered an extra 1,300 troops, and resisted what he saw was an attempt by CHichester-Clark to gain political control over them^[14]. Chichester-Clark resigned on 20 March.^[15] In his resignation statement he stated:

I have decided to resign because I can see no other way of bringing home to all concerned the realities of the present constitutional, political and security situation... It is apparent that public and parliamentry opinion in Northern Ireland looks to the Northern Ireland government for measures which can bring the current IRA campaign swiftly to an end. I have expressed to British Ministers the full force of this opinion and have pressed upon them my view that some further initiative is required. While they have agreed to take any feasible steps open to them to intensify the effort against the IRA, it remains the professional military view - and one which I indeed have often expressed myself - that it would be misleading the Northern Ireland community to suggest that we are faced with anything but a long haul, and that such initiatives as can be taken are unlikely to effect a radical improvement in the short term...^[15]

He agreed to tone down his statement so as to smooth the way for his successor^[16]. The Unionist Party internal newspaper, the Ulster Times in April 1971 carried a "respectful political obituary", which "condemned those who attacked Catholics in their homes":

“

For these stupid barbarities Major Chichester-Clark had to a substantial extent carry the can in Downing Street. He had also to carry the entangling burden of every event in the Ulster past which could cast doubt and discredit upon the viability of the Northern Ireland Constitution.[17]

”

On the 23 March 1971, Brian Faulkner was elected UUP leader in a vote by Unionist MP's, defeating William Craig by twenty-six votes to four. He was appointed Prime Minister the same day.^[18]

[edit] Peerage and later life

Chichester-Clark was created a life peer later that year as Baron Moyola, of Castledawson in the County of Londonderry; his title taken from the name of his family's estate. He endorsed the Belfast Agreement in the 1998 referendum. Lord Moyola died on May 17, 2002 at the age of 79, he was the last surviving Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

Lord Moyola remained quiet about his political career in his retirement. His wife (Lady Moyola QC), however, has said that he did enjoy the time - contrary to popular opinion - and that he thought of life as an MP as akin to that of an animal welfare officer.^[19]

[edit] Ancestors

8. James Johnston Clark, DL, JP

4. James Jackson Clark DL, JP of Largantogher, Co. Londonderry

2. James Clark

20. William Lenox- Conyngham

10. Sir William Fitzwilliam Lenox-Conyngham

21. Charlotte Melosina Staples of Lissan House

5. Elizabeth Mary Lenox-Conyngham MBE

22. George Arbuthnot (d.3/11/1843)

11. Laura Arbuthnott

23. Elizabeth Fraser

1. Lord Moyola

24. Edward Chichester, 4th Marquess of Donegall

12. Lord Adolphus John Spencer Churchill Chichester

25. Amelia Spread Deane Grady

6. Robert Peel Dawson Spencer Chichester

26. Col. Robert Peel Dawson

13. Mary Dawson of Castledawson

3. Marion Caroline Dehra Chichester

14. James Ker Fisher

7. Dehra Kerr-Fisher

15. Annie Kerr-Forsythe

[edit] See also

• List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords

[edit] References

1. ^ Lord Moyola - Telegraph
2. ^ Scoular, C, James Chichester-Clark (Killyleagh, 2000) p 69
3. ^ http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/ldrcounty.html
4. ^ Scoular, C, James Chichester-Clark (Killyleagh, 2000) p 46
5. ^ J H Whyte in Intra Unionist disputes in the Northern Ireland House of Commons 1921-72 Economic and Social Review (1973) p 103
6. ^ Bloomfield, K Stormont in Crisis (Belfast 1994) p 74
7. ^ Walker, G, A history of the Ulster Unionist Party (Manchester 2004) p 165
8. ^ Mullholland, M, Northern Ireland at the Crossroads (Basingstoke 2000) p 120
9. ^ Walker, Graham, A history of the Ulster Unionist Party, Manchester University Press 2004. pg 173
10. ^ Walker, Graham, A history of the Ulster Unionist Party, Manchester University Press 2004. pg 173
11. ^ Ibid
12. ^ Mulholland, M, Northern Ireland at the crossroads (Baskingstoke, 2000) p196
13. ^ Walker (2004) pp 175
14. ^ Walker (2004) pg 189
15. ^ ^{a b} A History of Northern Ireland 1920-1996 by Thomas Hennessey ISBN 0-333-73162-X p.189
16. ^ Walker (2004) pg 189
17. ^ Walker, Graham (2004). A history of the Ulster Unionist Party. Manchester University Press, p. 189. ISBN 0 7190 6108 3. 
18. ^ Walker, Graham (2004). A history of the Ulster Unionist Party. Manchester University Press, p. 190. ISBN 0 7190 6108 3. 
19. ^ BBC obituary

• Family tree.
• Clive Scoular, 'James Chichester-Clark: Prime Minister of Northern Ireland', 2000
• Telegraph obituary

Political offices
Preceded by William Kennedy Fitzsimmons	Assistant Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (Assistant Chief Whip) Mar 1963–Apr 1963	Succeeded by Isaac George Hawthorne
Preceded by William Craig	Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (Chief Whip) 1963–1966	Succeeded by Roy Hamilton Bradford
Preceded by Newly Created Office	Leader of the House of Commons 1966–1967	Succeeded by Brian McConnell
Preceded by Harry West	Minister of Agriculture 1967–1969	Succeeded by Phelim Robert Hugh O'Neill
Preceded by Terence O'Neill	Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party 1969–1971	Succeeded by Brian Faulkner
	Prime Minister of Northern Ireland 1969–1971
Preceded by Robert Wilson Porter	Minister of Home Affairs 1970–1971	Succeeded by Brian Faulkner
Parliament of Northern Ireland
Preceded by Dehra Parker	Member of Parliament for South Londonderry 1960 - 1972	Succeeded by Position prorogued 1972 Parliament abolished 1973

v • d • e Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland, 1922-1972 James Craigavon · John Miller Andrews · Basil Brookeborough · Terence O'Neill · James Chichester-Clark · Brian Faulkner

v • d • e Leaders of The Ulster Unionist Party Saunderson (1905–06) · Long (1906–10) · Carson (1910–21) · Craigavon (1921–40) · Andrews (1940–46) · Brookeborough (1946–63) · O'Neill (1963–69) · Chichester-Clark (1969–71) · Faulkner (1971–74) · West (1974–79) · Molyneaux (1979–95) · Trimble (1995–2005) · Empey (2005–)

Persondata
NAME	Chichester-Clark, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lord Moyola
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
DATE OF BIRTH	February 12, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Moyola Park, County Londonderry
DATE OF DEATH	May 17, 2002
PLACE OF DEATH