Independent Unionist - Notable Users of The Title

Notable Users of The Title

• George Hanna was an early independent Unionist, representing East Antrim in the British House of Commons from 1919.
• Tommy Henderson represented Belfast Shankill from 1929 to 1953 as an independent Unionist.
• James Woods Gyle, a member of both houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and a contemporary of Henderson, was an independent Unionist throughout his political career.
• James Brown contested the Northern Ireland general election, 1945 under this label.
• Norman Porter was elected for Belfast Clifton in the 1953 election on this ticket.
• Lloyd Hall-Thompson would later hold the same seat as an independent Unionist.
• George Forrest won the Mid Ulster by-election, 1956 as an independent Unionist before switching to the Ulster Unionist Party.
• Ian Smith stood unsuccessfully as an Independent Unionist candidate in the 1963 Kinross and West Perthshire by-election in Scotland, which was won by the then Conservative and Unionist Party leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Alec Douglas-Home.
• Bertie McConnell was elected to the NI Parliament under this banner in 1969.
• Hugh Smyth served in both the Northern Ireland Assembly (1973) and the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention as an independent unionist.
• Frank Millar was elected to both the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention and the Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) as an independent Unionist.
• Dorothy Dunlop campaigned under this label before joining the Conservative Party.
• William Bleakes used the term following his departure from the Conservatives.
• Fraser Agnew, Boyd Douglas and Denis Watson used the title before forming the United Unionist Coalition.
• Pauline Armitage briefly used the designation before joining the UK Unionist Party.
• Roger Hutchinson sat as an Independent Unionist following his expulsion from the Northern Ireland Unionist Party.
• Ivan Davis ran as independent Unionist after failing to secure selection as UUP candidature for the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003. He has subsequently returned to the UUP.