William James Morgan (PC(NI)) (17 July 1914 – 12 May 1999) was a Unionist politician in

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 ...

.Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections Results: Biographies
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Biography

A businessman by profession, he owned James Morgan & Sons, a transport contractors' business. He was president of the Irish Temperance Alliance and chairman of Oldpark

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

. He was elected to the

House of Commons of Northern Ireland The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the ''Government of Ireland Act 1920''. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished wit ...

from the Belfast Oldpark seat in 1949, and represented the constituency until his defeat by

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

in 1958. He was then elected for Belfast Clifton in a 1959 by-election, and served that constituency until being defeated in 1969. He served as Assistant Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Assistant Whip from 1958 to 1961. This included five months while not holding a seat in Parliament, something which was permitted for a maximum of six months under the

Government of Ireland Act 1920 The Government of Ireland Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 67) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill ...

. He entered the Cabinet and

Privy Council of Northern Ireland The Privy Council of Northern Ireland is a formal body of advisors to the sovereign and was a vehicle for the monarch's prerogative powers in Northern Ireland. It was modelled on the Privy Council of Ireland. The council was created in 1922 as ...

in 1961 as Minister of Health and Local Government and was appointed as Minister of Labour and National Insurance in 1964, and then Minister of Health and Social Services from 1965 to 1969, when he resigned. He was prevented by court order from referring to himself as the official Unionist candidate at the 1969 general election because of a violation of the rules at his selection meeting. He lost that election to the pro-

O'Neill The O'Neill dynasty (Irish: ''Ó Néill'') are a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin, that held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As kings of Cenél nEógain, they were historically the most prominent family of the Northern ...

and "unofficial" Unionist candidate,

Lloyd Hall-Thompson Robert Lloyd Hall-Thompson TD (9 April 1920 – 20 May 1992), known as Lloyd Hall-Thompson, was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland. Born in Belfast, Hall-Thompson was the son of Samuel Hall-Thompson, and grandson of Rt. Hon. Robert Thom ...

. He served as a member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

from 1969 until he resigned in 1970. He contested South Antrim in the by-election of 1970, and was a member of the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral , hou ...

for Belfast North from 1973 to 1974 as a "pledged" Ulster Unionist (i.e. pro-

Sunningdale Sunningdale is a large village with a retail area and a civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It takes up the extreme south-east corner of Berkshire, England. It has a railway station on the (London) Waterloo to Reading ...

), and then a member of the

Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (NICC) was an elected body set up in 1975 by the United Kingdom Labour government of Harold Wilson as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues surrounding the status of Northern Ireland. For ...

– this time as part of the

United Ulster Unionist Coalition The United Ulster Unionist Council (also known as the United Ulster Unionist Coalition) was a body that sought to bring together the Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland. Formation The UUUC was established in Januar ...

, having parted company with

Brian Faulkner Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, (18 February 1921 – 3 March 1977), was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive ...

and the pro-Sunningdale Unionists over the

Council of Ireland The Council of Ireland was a statutory body established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 as an all-Ireland law-making authority with limited jurisdiction, initially over both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, and later solely over ...

in May 1974 – from 1975 to 1976.Sydney Elliott (1999), ''Northern Ireland:A Political Directory 1968–97'', 5th edition He died on 12 May 1999.

References