Richard Jameson (loyalist)
| Richard Jameson | |
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Richard Jameson
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| Born | c.1953 Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 10 January 2000 Portadown |
| Buried | Tartaraghan Parish churchyard |
| Allegiance | Ulster Volunteer Force |
| Rank | Brigadier |
| Unit | Mid-Ulster Brigade |
| Conflict | The Troubles |
Richard Jameson (c. 1953 – 10 January 2000), was a Northern Irish businessman and loyalist, who served as the leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade. He was killed outside his Portadown home during a feud with the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the breakaway organisation founded by former Mid-Ulster UVF commander Billy Wright after he and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were officially stood down by the Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) in August 1996.
Following Jameson's death, the feud between the UVF and LVF escalated into a series of retaliatory killings. These went on intermittently until the LVF disbanded in 2005.
Richard Jameson was born in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland to a Protestant Church of Ireland family in about 1953, one of five sons. He had a twin brother, Stuart. He was married to Moira by whom he had three children: Glen, Wayne and Kirsty. A former reservist in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) (1973-1981), he worked as a manager in the Jameson Group, a building firm which was a family-owned business. The building firm was regularly awarded government contracts to carry out work for the security forces and it was for this reason that Jameson's brother David lost a leg in a 1991 Provisional IRA bombing attack. Jameson was a member of the Orange Order's Drumherriff Star of Erin LOL 8 Portadown district.
It is not known exactly when he became a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) nor the leader of its Mid-Ulster Brigade. The Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade had been officially stood down by the Brigade Staff in Belfast in August 1996 when it carried out an unauthorised sectarian killing while the UVF were on ceasefire. The Mid-Ulster Brigade's commander at the time, Billy Wright, was expelled from the UVF. He brazenly defied a Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) order to leave Northern Ireland or face execution by establishing the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). Wright took most of the Portadown Mid-Ulster UVF with him. The units of the Mid-Ulster Brigade that remained loyal to the Brigade Staff continued to operate and Jameson became commander. He was said by The Guardian to have been a "staunch supporter of the Good Friday Agreement".
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