William Alexander Fraser Agnew, known as Fraser Agnew, is a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

who was a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 to 2003. After growing up in

Ballyclare Ballyclare () is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,953 according to the 2011 census, and is located within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It sits on the river Six Mile Water. The town ...

, Agnew studied at the

University of Ulster sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

Jordanstown Jordanstown ( ga, Baile Mhic Shiúrtáin) is a townland (of 964 acres) and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the urban area of Newtownabbey and the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is also situated i ...

, Belfast Technical College and the College of Business Studies. He worked as a writer and

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

draughtsperson and was elected to

Newtownabbey Borough Council Newtownabbey Borough Council was a Local Authority in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, on the north shore of Belfast Lough just immediately north of Belfast. The Council merged with Antrim Borough Council in April 2015 under local government ...

as an

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...

(UUP) representative in 1980. Agnew was also elected to the

Northern Ireland Assembly, 1982 The Northern Ireland Assembly established in 1982 represented an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to restore the devolution to Northern Ireland which had been suspended 10 years previously. The Assembly was abolished in 1986. Origins The Assem ...

. In 1990, Agnew served as the Mayor of Newtownabbey. In the early 1990s, he left the UUP and was later re-elected as an

independent Unionist Independent Unionist has been a label sometimes used by candidates in elections in the United Kingdom, indicating a support for British unionism (not to be confused with trade unionism). It is most popularly associated with candidates in electi ...

. In 1996, standing for the 'Independent Templeton' ticket, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the

Northern Ireland Forum The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westmin ...

election in South Antrim. He was elected as an independent in the

1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election took place on Thursday, 25 June 1998. This was the first election to the new devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. Six members from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constit ...

, when he formed the

United Unionist Coalition The United Unionist Coalition (UUC), formerly known as the United Unionist Assembly Party, was a minor unionist political formation in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Assembly The UUC was formed by three members of the Northern Ireland Ass ...

(UUC) with other anti-

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

unionists. All three members of the UUC, including Agnew, lost their seats at the 2003 Assembly election. He held his council seat for the UUC in 2005. In March 2007, he was awarded the

Freedom of the Borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

Newtownabbey Newtownabbey ( ) is a large settlement in North Belfast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course. It surrounds Carnmoney Hill, and was formed from the merging of severa ...

. In January 2011, he rejoined the UUP.Agnew comes home to UUP
", Ulster Unionist Party, 28 January 2011 Tom Elliot, leader of the UUP had this to say regarding his decision: "I strongly believe that voters across the province will return, like Fraser, to their natural Ulster Unionist home and I am looking forward to making sure that the UUP becomes the party of choice for all shades of progressive Unionist opinion."

References

;Sources

20th-century births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Ballyclare Members of Newtownabbey Borough Council Mayors of Newtownabbey Northern Ireland MPAs 1982–1986 Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Independent members of the Northern Ireland Assembly Ulster Unionist Party councillors {{Northern-Ireland-MLA-stub