John William Nixon

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For other persons named John Nixon, see John Nixon (disambiguation).

John William Nixon, MBE (1880 -11 May 1949) was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

Born in Graddum, County Cavan, Nixon became a District Inspector of Police in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and transferred to its successor in the new state of Northern Ireland, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). By 1922, he was responsible for controlling access to the Roman Catholic Ardoyne and "The Bone" areas of Belfast in the early 1920s, and worked closely with the Specials.

Nationalist writer and activist Michael Farrell has alleged that during this period he led the Cromwell Club, an unofficial organisation of security officials responsible for killing several Catholics.^[1] However, these allegations have not been independently confirmed. Nixon was awarded the MBE in 1923 "... for services rendered by him during the troubled period."

In 1924, Nixon, long a member of the Orange Order, made a strongly Unionist political speech at an Orange Lodge. This contravened regulations, and he was dismissed on the orders of Prime Minister James Craig.^[1]

Nixon was elected to the Belfast City Council as an independent Unionist, and at the Northern Ireland general election, 1925, he stood unsuccessfully in Belfast North. In 1929, he was narrowly elected as the MP for Belfast Woodvale.^[2] From September 1932 until the 1933 election, he was the only opposition MP attending the Parliament. Around this time, he joined the Ulster Protestant League, an organisation with a reputation for anti-Catholicism.^[1]

Nixon held his seat until his death in 1949, denying the allegations against him until the end of his life. Currently a team of researchers is purportedly trying to clear Nixon's name of the allegations.^[3]^[4]