Billy Mitchell (loyalist)

Billy Mitchell
Born	William Mitchell 1940 Glengormley, Northern Ireland
Died	22 July 2006 (aged 65) Carrickfergus, County Antrim
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Church of the Nazarene, Carrickfergus
Residence	Shankill Road, Belfast
Nationality	British
Other names	"Richard Cameron"
Citizenship	British
Occupation	Copy boy, lorry driver, community worker
Years active	1966-2006
Organization	Ulster Protestant Volunteers Ulster Volunteer Force
Known for	Ulster loyalist, community worker
Political party	Progressive Unionist Party
Criminal charge	Murder
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Spouse(s)	Mena
Children	Cameron, Juliane
Military career
Allegiance	Ulster Protestant Volunteers Ulster Volunteer Force
Years of service	1966 - 1979
Conflict	The Troubles

Billy Mitchell (1940 – 22 July 2006) was a Northern Irish community activist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party. Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder but later abandoned UVF membership and took up cross-community work.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1940 into a poor family, Mitchell's father died when he was two years old. Although based in the Shankill Road during his adult life, Mitchell was raised just outside Belfast in what he described as "a wooden hut". The area, which at the time was the end of the city's tramline network, has subsequently been redeveloped as Glengormley.

After leaving school Mitchell briefly worked as a copy boy on the Belfast Telegraph but found it difficult to advance his position and so left to work as a lorry driver. Mitchell was attracted to the message of Ian Paisley and in the mid 1960s joined the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and served as a Sunday school teacher. He had been raised as a member of the Baptist faith.

Mitchell first came to loyalism with the Ulster Protestant Volunteers in 1966. Mitchell would later state that he was prompted to join the UPV by scare stories circulating about plans for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the Easter Rising, with a rumour even suggesting that the Irish Republican Army intended to use it as pretext to take control of Newry. He was close to Noel Doherty, one of the group's founder, who sought to establish an armed paramiliary structure within the UPV. Doherty kept this plan from the group's other founder Ian Paisley but allowed his closest confidantes, including Mitchell, to become involved in his attempts to set up a paramilitary group. Indeed before long Mitchell became Doherty's right-hand man.

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