Austin Ardill

Who was Austin Ardill?

Captain Robert Austin Ardill MC was a Northern Irish unionist politician.

Ardill was born in Belfast and educated at Coleraine Academical Institution. He later worked as the managing director of a feedstuffs company. He served in the Royal Irish Fusiliers from 1939 to 1946, winning the Military Cross for his bravery on the Greek island of Leros and retiring as a captain. He was a prisoner of war for 18 months before being freed by Allied troops after the D-Day landings. He also served as chairman of the Irish Temperance League.

After the war he became involved with the Ulster Unionist Party and was elected as a member of Larne Rural District Council. In 1965 he was elected as a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, representing Carrick. He was opposed to the political reform programme of the Prime Minister Terence O'Neill and as a result lost the UUP nomination for Carrick in 1969 to Anne Dickson.

Subsequently, he became involved in the Ulster Vanguard movement, as one of its deputy leaders. The movement was launched on opposed to any further reforms which would threaten the status quo. When the movement broke away from the UUP to form a separate political party, Ardill chose to remain with the UUP.