Billy Spence

Billy Spence (died 1980) was a loyalist activist in Northern Ireland. A native of the Shankill Road area of Belfast, Spence was a leading figure with both Ulster Protestant Action and the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Born in Belfast, Spence was the older brother of Gusty, later to become an even more prominent loyalist. He was the son of William Edward Spence, who was born in Whitehaven but raised in Belfast, and Isabella Hayes. In 1945, Billy Spence was critical of his younger brother's invitation to Paddy Devlin to play for the Old Lodge soccer team.

In keeping with the military tradition of the family, Spence served with the Royal Navy as a young man. He then worked in the Belfast Corporation's transport department as a timekeeper. In this role he served as a member of the Transport and General Workers' Union. He flirted with socialism and was sometimes critical of the refusal of the Ulster Unionist Party to run working class candidates in deprived areas.

In 1956, Spence was a founding member of the Ulster Protestant Action (UPA) executive, and was appointed as its chairman. Billy introduced Ian Paisley to his younger brother, In 1962, along with John McQuade, he joined the Ulster Unionist Party's Court ward branch, as part of an entryist campaign by UPA members, and was soon appointed as Jim Kilfedder's election agent. During the 1966 general election, Paisley said that Kilfedder had links with Fine Gael, and Spence blamed this for the loss of the Belfast West seat to the Republican Labour Party's Gerry Fitt. Spence also served as secretary of the West Belfast Imperial Unionist Association.

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