Jeffery Agate

Jeffery Stanford "Jeff" Agate, OBE (1919 –1977) was the Managing Director of the DuPont factory at Maydown, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He was shot dead by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) outside his home at Talbot Park, Derry as he returned from work on the evening of February 2, 1977.

Agate was the only son of Carlton and Ethel Agate. He was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, India where his father was employed as an engineer. He had two older sisters, Theodora and Cynthia.

Educated in England, Agate achieved a BSc in Engineering. During the Second World War, he saw active duty on HMS Devonshire as a Temporary Lieutenant (E) in the Royal Navy. In 1957, he joined DuPont as chief engineer at the Maydown plant. He was promoted to plant manager in 1962 and later became Managing Director.

Agate was a well-liked and respected figure in both DuPont and the Derry community. Raymond McClean wrote in The Road to Bloody Sunday that "Jeff Agate was an honest and just human being of the highest calibre. His assassination by the IRA left me in total disbelief and disgust." Agate's killing prompted an enormous outpouring of public grief that culminated in a mass protest at Guildhall Square in Derry and united people from all communities at a time of heightened sectarian tension.

His widow, Alice Vera Agate (née Dand) returned to her native Newcastle upon Tyne where she lived in relative isolation until her death in 1994. The Agates had no children.

Agate's murder was the first in a series of IRA attacks on businessmen. The IRA claimed that "Those involved in the management of the economy serve British interests. They represent and maintain economic interests which make the war necessary."

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