Augustus Andrew "Gusty" Spence was a leader of the
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and a leading
loyalist politician in
Northern Ireland. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade.
During his time in prison Spence renounced violence and helped to
convince a number of fellow inmates that the future of the UVF lay in a
more political approach. Spence joined the
Progressive Unionist Party
(PUP), becoming a leading figure in the group and as a PUP
representative he took a principal role in delivering the loyalist
ceasefires of 1994.
(28 June 1933
[2] – 24 September 2011)
Early years
Spence was born in the
Shankill Road, Belfast,
Northern Ireland, the son of William Edward Spence, who was born in
Whitehaven,
England and raised in the Tiger's Bay area of north Belfast before moving to the Shankill.
[3] He had been a member of the
Ulster Volunteers and had fought in the
First World War.
[4] He married Isabella "Bella" Hayes, Gusty Spence's mother, in 1919.
[3] Spence was the sixth of seven children, their birth order being Billy, Cassie, Jim, Bobby, Ned junior, Gusty and Lily.
[5] The family home was 66 Joseph Street in an area of the lower Shankill known colloquially as "the Hammer".
[5]
He was educated at the Riddel School on Malvern Street and the
Hemsworth Square school, both on the Shankill, finishing his education
aged fourteen.
[6] He was also a member of the
Church Lads' Brigade, a
Church of Ireland group, and the Junior Orange Order.
[7]
Spence took various manual jobs in the area until joining the
British Army in 1957 as a member of the
Royal Ulster Rifles.
[2] Spence rose to the rank of miitary police sergeant.
[8] He served in the army until 1961 when ill-health forced him to leave.
[2] Spence was stationed in
Cyprus during his time in the army and saw action fighting against the forces of Colonel
Georgios Grivas.
[9] From an early age Spence was a member of the The Prince Albert Temperance
Loyal Orange Lodge, where fellow members included
John McQuade.
[10] He has also been a member of the
Royal Black Institution and the
Apprentice Boys of Derry.
[11]
Due to his later involvement in a murder he was expelled from the
Orange Order and the Royal Black Institution, although it is unknown
whether the Apprentice Boys of Derry took any disciplinary action.
Involvement with loyalism
His older brother
Billy Spence was a founding member of
Ulster Protestant Action in 1956.
[12] Gusty Spence himself was frequently involved in street fights with republicans and garnered a reputation as a "hard man".
[8] He was also associated loosely with radical unionists such as
Ian Paisley and
Desmond Boal and was advised by both men in 1959 when he launched a protest against
Gerry Fitt at
Belfast City Hall after Fitt had described Spence's regiment as "murderers" over allegations that they had killed civilians in Cyprus.
[1] Spence, along with other Shankill Road loyalists, would break from Paisley in 1965 when they sided with
Jim Kilfedder in a row that followed the latter's campaigns in
Belfast West. Paisley had intimated that Kilfedder, a rival for the leadership of dissident unionism, was close to
Fine Gael after learning that he had attended party meetings while a student at
Trinity College, Dublin.
The Shankill loyalists however supported Kilfedder and following his
election as MP sent a letter to Paisley accusing him of treachery during
the entire affair.
[13]
Ulster Volunteer Force
Spence had claimed that he was approached in 1965 by two men, one of whom was an
Ulster Unionist Party MP, who told him that the
Ulster Volunteer Force
was to be re-established and that he was to have responsibility for the
Shankill. He was sworn in soon afterwards in a ceremony held in secret
near
Pomeroy.
[14]
Because of his Army experience Gusty Spence was chosen as the military
commander and public face of the UVF when the group was established
although
Special Branch believed that his brother Billy, who kept a much lower public profile, was the real leader of the group.
[9] Whatever the truth of this intelligence Gusty Spence's Shankill UVF was made up of only around 12 men on its formation.
[14]
On 7 May 1966, a group of UVF men led by Spence
petrol bombed
a Catholic-owned pub on Shankill Road. Fire also engulfed the house
next door, killing the elderly widow, Matilda Gould (77), who lived
there.
[15] On 27 May, Spence ordered four UVF men to kill an
Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, Leo Martin, who lived on
Falls Road.
Unable to find their target, the men drove around in search of a
Catholic. They shot dead John Scullion (28), a Catholic civilian, as he
walked home.
[16] Spence later wrote "At the time, the attitude was that if you couldn't get an IRA man you should shoot a
Taig, he's your last resort".
[16]
On 26 June, the same gang shot dead Catholic civilian Peter Ward (18)
and wounded two others as they left a pub on Malvern Street, Belfast.
[15] Two days later, the
government of Northern Ireland declared the UVF illegal.
[15] Shortly after, Spence and three others were arrested.
[17]
In October 1966, Spence was sentenced to life imprisonment for the
murder of Peter Ward, although Spence has always claimed he was
innocent.
[2] He was sent to
Crumlin Road Prison. During its
12 July 1967 march, the Orange lodge to which he belonged stopped outside the prison in tribute to him.
[18] This occurred despite Spence having been officially expelled from the Orange Order following his conviction.
[19]
Spence's involvement in the killings gave him legendary status among
many young loyalists and he was claimed as an inspiration by the likes
of
Michael Stone.
[20] Indeed
Tim Pat Coogan has described Spence as a "loyalist folk hero".
[21] The attack was however repudiated by Ian Paisley and condemned in his
Protestant Telegraph, sealing the earlier split between the two.
[22]
In prison
Spence appealed against his conviction and was the subject of a release petition organised by the
Ulster Constitution Defence Committee although nothing came of either initiative.
[23] From prison he was often at odds with the leadership of the UVF on the outside as was particularly the case with the 1971
McGurk's Bar bombing, Spence arguing that UVF members were soldiers and soldiers should not kill civilians.
[24] This was despite the fact that control of the UVF lay, nominally at least, with Spence's closest ally
Samuel "Bo" McClelland.
[25] Spence respected
Irish republicans whom he felt also lived as soldiers and to this end he wrote a sympathetic letter to the widow of
Official IRA leader
Joe McCann after he was killed in 1972.
[26]
Escape
Spence was granted two days leave around 1 July 1972 to attend the wedding of his daughter Elizabeth to
Winston Churchill "Winkie" Rea. The latter had formally asked Spence for his daughter's hand in marriage during a prison visit.
[27] Met by two members of the
Red Hand Commando
upon his release, Spence was informed of the need for a restructuring
within the UVF, and told not to return to prison. He initially refused
and went on to attend his daughter's wedding. Afterward a plot was
concocted where his nephew
Frankie Curry, also a UVF member, would drive Spence back to jail but the car would be stopped and Spence "kidnapped".
[27]
As arranged, the car in which Spence was a passenger was stopped on the
Springmartin Road and Spence was taken away by UVF members.
[27] He remained at large for four months and during that time even gave an interview to
ITV's
World in Action
in which he called for the UVF to take an increased role in the
Northern Ireland conflict against the Provisional IRA while also
distancing himself from any policy of random murders of Catholics.
[28]
He also took on responsibility for the restructuring as ordered,
returning the UVF to the same command structure and organisational base
that
Edward Carson
had utilised for his Ulster Volunteers with brigades, battalions,
companies, platoons, and sections. He also directed a significant
restocking of the group's arsenal, with guns mostly taken from the
security forces.
[29] Spence gave his permission for UVF brigadier
Billy Hanna to establish the UVF's
Mid-Ulster Brigade in
Lurgan, and endorsed Hanna's leadership as commander of the unit.
[30] His escape earned him the nickname "the Orange Pimpernel".
[31]
Spence's time on the outside came to an end on 4 November when he was captured by Colonel
Derek Wilford of the
Parachute Regiment who identified Spence from his tattooed hands.
[29]
He was returned to Crumlin Road gaol soon afterward, where he shared a
cell with William "Plum" Smith, one of the Red Hand Commandos whom he
had met upon his initial release and who had since been jailed for
attempted murder.
[32]
Move to politics
Spence soon became the UVF commander within the
Maze Prison.
[2]
Spence ran his part of the Maze along military lines, drilling inmates
and training them in weapons use while also expecting a maintenance of
discipline.
[33] As Maze commander Spence initially also had jurisdiction over the imprisoned members of the
Ulster Defence Association
although this came to an end in 1973 when, following a deterioration of
relations between the two groups outside the prison walls,
James Craig became the UDA's Maze commander.
[34]
Spence began to move towards a position of using political means and
persuaded the UVF leadership to declare a temporary ceasefire in 1973.
[35] Following
Merlyn Rees' decision to legalise the UVF in 1974 Spence encouraged them to enter politics and supported the establishment of the
Volunteer Political Party.
[35] Spence's ideas were abandoned however as the UVF ceasefire fell apart that same year following the
Ulster Workers' Council strike and the
Dublin and Monaghan bombings; the carnage of the latter had shocked and horrified Spence.
[36] Furthermore, the VPP suffered a heavy defeat in West Belfast in the
October 1974 general election, when the DUP candidate John McQuade captured six times as many votes as the VPP's
Ken Gibson.
[37]
Spence was increasingly disillusioned with the UVF and he distilled these views to fellow inmates at Long Kesh. According to
Billy Mitchell Spence quizzed him and others sent to the Maze about why they were there, seeking an
ideological
answer to his question. When the prisoner was unable to provide one
Spence would then seek to convince them of the wisdom of his more
politicised path, something that he accomplished with Mitchell.
[38] David Ervine and
Billy Hutchinson were among the other UVF men imprisoned in the mid 1970s to become disciples of Spence.
[39] In 1977 he publicly condemned the use of violence for political gain, on the grounds that it was counter-productive.
[2] In 1978 Spence left the UVF altogether.
[2]
His brother Bobby, also a UVF member, died in October 1980 inside the
Maze, a few months after the death of their brother Billy.
[40]
PUP activity
Released from prison in 1984, he soon became a leading member of the UVF-linked
Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and a central figure in the
Northern Ireland peace process.
[2] He was entrusted by the
Combined Loyalist Military Command
(CLMC) to read out their 13 October 1994 statement that announced the
loyalist ceasefire. Flanked by his PUP colleagues Jim McDonald and
William "Plum" Smith, as well as
Ulster Democratic Party members
Gary McMichael,
John White and
Davy Adams, Spence read out the statement in Fernhill House in Belfast's Glencairn area, an important training centre for members of
Edward Carson's original
Ulster Volunteers.
[41] A few days after the announcement Spence made a trip to the
United States along with the PUP's
David Ervine and
Billy Hutchinson and the UDP's McMichael, Adams and
Joe English, where among their engagements was one as guests of honour of the
National Committee on American Foreign Policy.
[42] He went on to become a leading advocate of the
Belfast Agreement.
[2]
In August 2000 Spence was caught up in moves by
Johnny Adair's
"C" Company of the UDA to take control of the Shankill by forcing out
the UVF and other opponents. Adair's men forced their way into Spence's
Shankill home but found it empty as Spence tended to spend much of the
summer at a caravan he owned in
Groomsport.
Nonetheless the C Company members ransacked the house and stole
Spence's army medals while the Spence family were forced to stay off the
Shankill for the entirety of the
loyalist feud.
[43]
When Spence's wife died three years later he said that C Company had
been responsible for her death such was the toll that the events had
taken on her health.
[44]
On 3 May 2007, he read out the statement by the UVF announcing that
it will keep its weapons but put them beyond the reach of ordinary
members. The statement also included a warning that activities could
"provoke another generation of loyalists toward armed resistance". He
did not specify what activities or what was being resisted.
[45]
Personal life
Spence married Louie Donaldson, a native of the city's Grosvenor Road, on 20 June 1953 at Wellwood Street Mission,
Sandy Row.
[46] The couple had three daughters, Elizabeth (born 1954), Sandra (1956) and Catherine (1960).
[47] Spence, a talented
footballer in his youth with Old Lodge F.C., was a lifelong supporter of
Linfield F.C.[48] Louie died in 2003.
[49]
Death
Spence died on 25 September 2011, aged 78, in a Belfast hospital;
[49]
he had been suffering from a long-term illness and was admitted to
hospital 12 days prior to his death. Spence was praised by, among
others, PUP leader
Brian Ervine, who stated that "his contribution to the peace is incalculable"; and
Sinn Fein's
Gerry Kelly
who claimed that while Spence had been central to the development of
loyalist paramilitarism, "he will also be remembered as a major
influence in drawing loyalism away from sectarian strife".
[50]
However, a granddaughter of Matilda Gould, who died of burn injuries
at the age of 74, which had been sustained in the UVF's attempted
bombing of a Catholic bar next door to Gould's home, objected to Spence
being called a "peacemaker" and described him as a "bad man". The
unnamed woman stated, "When you go out and throw a petrol bomb through a
widow's window, you're no peacemaker."
[51]
His funeral service was held in St Michael's Church of Ireland on the
Shankill Road. Notable mourners included Unionist politicians
Dawn Purvis,
Mike Nesbitt,
Michael McGimpsey,
Hugh Smyth and Brian Ervine, UVF chief
John "Bunter" Graham and UDA South Belfast brigadier
Jackie McDonald.
In accordance with Spence's wishes there were no paramilitary trappings
at the funeral or reference to his time in the UVF. Instead his coffin
was adorned with the beret and regimental flag of the Royal Ulster
Rifles, his former British Army regiment. He was buried in
Bangor.
[52][53]
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