The UVF H.Q. Staff (Part 2)

At the pinnacle of the Ulster Volunteers leadership was Sir Edward Carson. Born in Dublin 1854, Edward Carson became a barrister at the tender age of 23, the start of a long and distinguished legal career. He was elected as an MP for Dublin University in 1892 and by 1910 was the leader of Irish Unionism. Carson was the first person to sign the Ulster Covenant, and while there is no official role ever designated to him within the U.V.F. he was considered its titular head. He was the sole person officially issued with an unmarked U.V.F. lapel badge. He  was one of only three men on the Military Council of the Ulster Provisional Government, alongside the Ulster Volunteer Force G.O.C. Sir George Richardson and C.S.O. Colonel George William Hackett Pain.

Headquarters staff member issued with badge Z1 was Lieutenant General Sir George Lloyd Reilly Richardson. Born in 1847, he began a distinguished military career in 1866 with the 38^th Regiment of Foot (1^st Staffordshire). He transferred to the British Indian Army in 1871, and led from the front in several famous campaigns, most notably the final assault on Peking during the Boxer Rebellion 1900-1901, before retiring in 1909. Richardson was appointed General Officer in Command (G.O.C.) of the Ulster Volunteer Force in June 1913, however his appointment was not publicly announced until September 1913. Recommended to the post by Field Marshall Lord Roberts, and remained in same until 1919 when he resigned aged 72.

Z2 was Colonel George William Hackett Pain. Born in 1855, in 1875 he served as a part time officer in the Militia before receiving a commission to Lieutenant in the 102^nd Regiment of Foot in November of that year. His military experience included the Sudan and South Africa, before eventually rising to Assistant Adjutant General of the Egyptian Army. He took command of the Worcestershire Regiment in 1900 and was mentioned in despatches in 1901. Promoted to full Colonel in 1907 and retired from the Army on 5 February 1912. He took up the role of U.V.F. Chief Staff Officer (C.S.O.) in June 1913, but like Richardson it was not made public until September.

Lieutenant Colonel Terence Valentine Plaisted McCammon was Z3, born in Dublin in 1875. Despite being born outside Ulster in 1912 signed the Ulster Covenant in Holywood, and was a prominent member of both the Orange Order and Masonic Order in North Down. During his Army career he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the 5^th Royal Irish Rifles and was killed in action in April 1917 in command of the 2^nd Hampshire Regiment. An early recruit to the H.Q. staff of the Ulster Volunteer Force, he was officially in its ranks on 18^th December 1912, and eventually he would fulfil the role of Administration Officer.

In part 3- Spender, Hall, Bates and Hungerford…