William Twaddell

Who was William Twaddell?

William John Twaddell was a Unionist politician from Belfast.

Twaddell was a draper from Belfast who was educated at a Belfast primary school.

He was a Member of Belfast City Council from 1910 and sat as an Ulster Unionist Party member. He was elected to the Parliament of Northern Ireland for Belfast West from the general election of 1921 until he was assassinated on the 22nd May 1922 by the Irish Republican Army. He was walking in Garfield Street, to his business, a short distance away, and had been followed closely by his assassins.

His death precipitated a clamp-down on the IRA in Northern Ireland and 350 IRA members were interned.

Twaddell was buried at Drumcree Church where his headstone records that he was 'foully murdered in Belfast'.