Brief Biography:

Roy Bradford was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and Trinity College Dublin, before going onto serve with British Army Intelligence during the Second World War. During the 1950s Bradford worked in London as a producer and writer for television but returned to Northern Ireland after an invitation to stand as a candidate for the Unionist Party. In 1965 he was returned to the Stormont parliament for the Belfast ward of Victoria (1965-72) and after serving in a number of junior ministerial positions, he entered the cabinet as Minister for Education (1967-68). Later Bradford went onto have spells as Chief Whip (1968-69), Minister of Commerce (1969-71), and Minister of Development (1971-72).

Although initially highly critical of the decision by the British government to introduce direct rule in 1972 he supported moves by Brian Faulkner, then Unionist leader, to enter into negotiations to restore devolved government to Northern Ireland. In June 1973 Bradford was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly (1973-74) for the constituency of East Belfast and with the establishment of a power-sharing Executive in January 1974, he became head of the Department of Environment (January 1974 - May 1974). At the same time however he publicly voiced his reservations concerning the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement and its attempts to formalise relations between Belfast and Dublin. During the Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) strike of May 1974 he angered some of his colleagues on the Executive when he suggested that contact would have to be made with the UWC leadership. After the collapse of the Executive and the Assembly Bradford left active politics for a time but then returned in the late 1980s following his election in 1989 as an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) councillor on North Down Borough Council (1989-98).

Book References:

Anderson, Don. (1994), 14 May Days: The Inside Story of the Loyalist Strike of 1974. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Elliott, Sydney., and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Harbinson, John Fitzsimons. (1973), The Ulster Unionist Party, 1882-1973: Its Development and Organisation. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Mulholland, Marc. (2000), Northern Ireland at the Crossroads: Ulster Unionism in the O'Neill Years 1960-9. London: Macmillan.

Web Sources:

[Entry written by B.Lynn - 28 March 2003]