Rafton Pounder

Who was Rafton Pounder?

Rafton John Pounder was a Pro-Assembly Unionist and Conservative Party politician and in Northern Ireland.

Born at Ballynahatty, Shaw's Bridge, Belfast, the son of Cuthbert C. Pounder, Rafton Pounder was educated at Charterhouse and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was Chairman of the Conservative Association.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Belfast South in a 1963 by-election, and served until February 1974 when he lost as a Pro-Assembly Unionist to the Reverend Robert Bradford of the United Ulster Unionist Coalition. Pounder was also a Member of the European Parliament from 1973 to 1974. From 1964 to 1967, he served as Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Parliamentary Party.

Married to Valerie Isobel, with one son and one daughter, he lived at Groomsport, County Down, until his death at age 57.