Introduction to the Craigavon Personal Papers
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Personal papers of James Craig (1871 to 1940), 1st Viscount Craigavon, statesman and Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and of his wife, Lady Craigavon (1880 to 1953), 1884 to 1940.
Comprising some 300 documents, volumes, photographs and newspaper cuttings, the collection provides an interesting insight into the life and career of the man who was to play a critical and integral role in the evolution of Northern Ireland as a separate political entity.
Born at Sydenham, a suburb of Belfast, he was the youngest of six sons of James Craig, J.P., of Craigavon and Tyrella, Co. Down, a successful businessman in Belfast.
Educated at a private school in Holywood, Co. Down and afterwards at Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, the younger Craig became a stockbroker.
With the start of the Boer War in 1899 he ceased formally to be a member of the Belfast Stock Exchange and took a commission in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. Serving with distinction as a lieutenant with the Imperial Yeomanry, he was captured by the Boers but survived the barren conditions of a concentration camp and returned home with a firm and lasting faith in the British way of life.