26 Facts About James Chichester-Clark

James Chichester-Clark was Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament for South Londonderry for 12 years, beginning at the by-election to replace his grandmother, Dame Dehra Parker in 1960.

James Chichester-Clark stopped being an MP when the Stormont Parliament was suspended and subsequently abolished with the introduction of Direct Rule by the British Government.

James Chichester-Clark was the eldest of three children of James J Lenox-Conyngham Clark and Marion Caroline Dehra, nee Chichester.

James Chichester-Clark's brother was Robin Chichester-Clark and his sister, Penelope Hobhouse, the garden writer and historian.

Educated, against his own wishes, at Selwyn House, Broadstairs, and then Eton, James Chichester-Clark left school and entered adulthood in the midst of the Second World War.

James Chichester-Clark married widow Moyra Haughton in 1959.

James Chichester-Clark was an officer in the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards, part of 24th Guards Brigade attached to British 1st Infantry Division, and participated briefly in the Anzio landings.

James Chichester-Clark was injured on 23 February 1944 by an 88m shell as he and his Platoon Sergeant took their first look at the ground in the 'gullies' to the west of the Anzio-Albano road.

James Chichester-Clark's company were all but wiped out, and he spent most of his war in hospital recovering from injuries, the effects of which stayed with him throughout his life.

On returning from Canada, James Chichester-Clark continued in the Army for several years, refusing promotion to seniority before retiring a major in 1960.

James Chichester-Clark's father, replaced her in 1929 when the county was split, but he suddenly died in 1933.

James Chichester-Clark retained the seat for the remainder of the Parliament's 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.

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

Accounts of the period are that James Chichester-Clark enjoyed the Whip's office more than any other he was to subsequently hold in politics.

James Chichester-Clark was sworn into the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in 1966.

In 1967, O'Neill sacked his Minister of Agriculture, Harry West, for ministerial impropriety, and James Chichester-Clark was appointed in his place, a position he retained for two quiet years.

James Chichester-Clark 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.

James Chichester-Clark beat Faulkner in the 1969 Ulster Unionist Party leadership election 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".

James Chichester-Clark's premiership was punctuated by the civil unrest that erupted after August 1969.

James Chichester-Clark suffered from the effects of the Hunt Report, which recommended the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary, which his Government accepted to the consternation of many Unionists.

James Chichester-Clark flew to London on 18 March 1971 to request a new security initiative from the new British Prime Minister Edward Heath, who offered an extra 1,300 troops, and resisted what he saw was an attempt by James Chichester-Clark to gain political control over them.

James Chichester-Clark agreed to tone down his statement so as to smooth the way for his successor.

James Chichester-Clark had 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.

On 20 July 1971 James Chichester-Clark was created a life peer as Baron Moyola, of Castledawson in the County of Londonderry, his title taken from the name of his family's estate.

James Chichester-Clark endorsed the Belfast Agreement in the 1998 referendum.

James Chichester-Clark was Vice-Lord Lieutenant of County Londonderry from 1975 to 1993.