Derek Wilford

Colonel Derek Wilford, OBE, is a former British Army officer who commanded the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

In Derry,[1] Northern Ireland on Bloody Sunday he was in command, when soldiers within his battalion shot 26 unarmed civilian protesters. At the time he was a lieutenant colonel.[2][3] The following year he was awarded the OBE by Queen Elizabeth II, widely seen as a reward for his part in Bloody Sunday.[4] The Saville Inquiry into the incident found that he had ignored orders, without justification, and in doing so had "set in train" the shootings.

Northern Ireland

Wilford was exonerated by the Widgery tribunal that April and on 3 October 1972 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This act was widely interpreted as both a reward for his part in Bloody Sunday and a gesture of solidarity for him by the British establishment.[5][4][6] However, the Saville Inquiry, many years later, determined that Wilford had expressly disobeyed an order from a superior officer, Brigadier Pat MacLellan, who prohibited Wilford from sending troops into the Bogside. The Saville Inquiry found that MacLellan was not to blame for the shootings.[7] Lord Saville said Colonel Wilford was wrong to send soldiers into an unfamiliar area where there was a risk of attack from Irish republican paramilitaries, in circumstances where the soldiers' response would risk civilians being killed or injured.

Saville suggested Wilford "wanted to demonstrate the way to deal with rioters in Derry was not for soldiers to shelter behind barricades like (as he put it) Aunt Sallies while being stoned, as he perceived the local troops had been doing, but instead to go aggressively after rioters, as he and his soldiers had been doing in Belfast". He added: "His failure to comply with his orders, instead setting in train the very thing his brigadier has prohibited him from doing, cannot be justified...Colonel Wilford should not have launched an incursion into the Bogside."[8]

Aftermath

Wilford was known locally in Derry in the aftermath as the 'Butcher of the Bogside'.[8] On 4 November 1972, Wilford captured the Ulster Volunteer Force leader Gusty Spence, then on the run from prison.[9]

Wilford has been outspoken against the criticism of his leadership and has always defended the actions of his soldiers since the incident. He always maintained his soldiers were fired upon first and in 1992 in a BBC documentary he stated "I don't believe my soldiers were wrong", reasoning "If you get into an enormous crowd which is out to make mischief you are in the first instance a party to it."[10] In 1998 he stated he was angry at Tony Blair's intention of setting up the Saville Inquiry and that he should not apologise for it.[11] In 1999, speaking on BBC radio he "suggest[ed] that almost all Northern Ireland Catholics were closet republicans". This reportedly angered family members of some victims. He later apologised for his comments, yet "the army distanced itself from him".[10]

Wilford has claimed he has been made a scapegoat since that day and has been abandoned by the military hierarchy and British Government. Despite this he didn't retire from the army until 1983, although he stated he felt constantly passed over for promotion, ending his career only one rank higher than his 1972 rank.


Personal life

In 2000, Wilford was living outside the United Kingdom.[10] According to the Derry Journal, as of 2010, he had been living in Belgium for a number of years with his new wife and daughter.[12] In the wake of the release of the Saville report, he has refused to make any further comments, stating "I don't want to talk about it. It's all been said."[8][12]

In 2010, he was incorrectly reported by RTE and the BBC to have died.[12]

References
  1. There is a longstanding Derry/Londonderry name dispute. This article follows the approach that Derry refers to the city and County Londonderry refers to the county (outside of organisations' names, which may follow their own approaches).
  2. Simon Winchester, "Amid the tears and cheers, a full stop to Britain's colonial experience in Northern Ireland", The Guardian, 15 June 2010
  3. David McKittrick, "Saville pins the blame for Bloody Sunday on British soldiers", The Independent, 16 June 2010
  4. McKinney, Seamus (28 January 2022). "Call to use 50th anniversary to strip Derek Wilford of OBE". The Irish News. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  5. "No. 45793". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 October 1972. p. 11634.
  6. "The Most Important Event in the Life of Queen Elizabeth in Every Year of Her Reign – Page 4 – 24/7 Wall St". Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  7. "Saville pins the blame for Bloody Sunday on British soldiers", The Independent, op cit.
  8. "Bloody Sunday: Wilford tracked down... but Paras officer won't say sorry". Belfast Telegraph. 21 June 2010.
  9. Taylor, Peter (1999). Loyalists. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 112. ISBN 0-7475-4519-7.
  10. "Col Wilford: Don't blame my soldiers". BBC News. 24 March 2000.
  11. Sherwood, Deborah (25 January 1998). "I was proud to lead the Paras on Bloody Sunday...don't dare say sorry for me, Mr Blair". Sunday Mirror. London.
  12. "Wilford-is-alive". Derry Journal. 22 June 2010. Archived from the original on 28 July 2010.
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