15 Facts About Harry West

Henry William West was a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1974 until 1979.

Harry West was born in County Fermanagh and educated at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen.

Harry West worked as a farmer, taking an interest in local government, but it was not until 1954 that he entered Stormont as member for the Enniskillen seat, succeeding Thomas Nelson.

Harry West became one of a number of Stormont MPs critical of O'Neill's conciliatory approach towards Nationalists and in 1969 he had the whip withdrawn, along with William Craig.

Harry West became Minister of Agriculture once more and retained that position until the Stormont government was dissolved in 1972.

Harry West emerged as a fierce critic of the negotiations that would lead to the Sunningdale Agreement, and led the "anti-White Paper" Unionists in the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973.

Harry West succeeded him as leader of the party and sought to regain much of the support that the party had lost to breakaway and other Unionist groupings.

Harry West himself stood in Fermanagh and South Tyrone and won, albeit due to a split nationalist vote.

Harry West continued to seek ways to expand unionism and recruited the ex-Conservative Member of Parliament Enoch Powell to the party.

Harry West himself lost his seat in Parliament due to a pact between Nationalists, so having the dubious distinction of being the only MP who served between the two general elections in 1974 who never served in any other Parliament, but he remained leader of the party.

In June 1979 Harry West stood as one of two candidates in the first elections to the European Parliament.

However he was unsuccessful in the Single Transferable Vote constituency for the entire province and had the personal humiliations of seeing rival DUP leader Ian Paisley top the poll, fellow Ulster Unionist John Taylor win one of the seats and former Ulster Unionist member James Kilfedder performing better than Harry West to become runner up.

Harry West was considered to have fought a lacklustre campaign, and the UUP chose Ken Maginnis instead to fight the second by-election; although he did not win he was considered to have fought a more dynamic campaign.

Harry West was married to Maureen Hall and they had four sons and three daughters.

Harry West's nephew is James Cooper, who was chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party from 2003 to 2005 and unsuccessfully was the Party's candidate in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in 2001.