Jim Anderson (loyalist)

Jim Anderson
Birth name	James Anderson
Born	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Allegiance	Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
Rank	Major General
Unit	B Company, 2nd Battalion, West Belfast Brigade
Conflict	The Troubles

James "Jim" Anderson (born 1930) was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary who from April to December 1972 was the acting leader of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) while its commander and the founder of the organisation, Charles Harding Smith was in jail on remand for gun-running. Upon the latter's return, Anderson, together with Harding Smith, was joint chairman of the UDA until he stood down in the spring of 1973. In the battle between Harding Smith and East Belfast brigadier, Tommy Herron for the succession to the leadership, a compromise candidate, Andy Tyrie, was appointed as chairman.

Anderson, a Protestant glazier from the Crumlin Road area of Belfast, was an early member of a loyalist vigilante group, the Woodvale Defence Association (WDA). Anderson's base of operation was the mid-Shankill, which runs parallel to the Crumlin Road, where he garnered a reputation as a good organiser and worked closely with Billy Hull. Anderson was present at the September 1971 meeting where the Woodvale Defence Association merged with other vigilante groups to form the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). At this meeting Hull was chosen as chairman of the new group with Alan Moon of the lower Shankill vice-chairman; although before long Anderson replaced Moon in this role. Moon, who had become reluctant to be involved in vigilantism since the group's formation, willingly stepped aside and ended his association with the UDA soon afterwards. The structure of this new movement soon took shape with a thirteen-man Security Council established in January 1972 as a reaction to a Provisional IRA bomb at the Balmoral furniture showroom on the Shankill which killed four people including two infants. Anderson was one of the members of this Council.

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