Wesley Somerville
| Wesley Somerville | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | William Wesley Somerville |
| Born | c. 1941 Moygashel, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 31 July 1975 (aged 33–34) Buskhill, County Down, Northern Ireland |
| Allegiance |
Ulster Volunteer Force Ulster Defence Regiment |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | Mid-Ulster Brigade |
| Conflict | The Troubles |
William Wesley Somerville (c. 1941 – 31 July 1975) was a Northern Irish loyalist, who held the rank of lieutenant in the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade during the period of conflict known as "the Troubles". He also served as a member of the British state's legal Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). Somerville was part of the UVF unit that ambushed the Irish cabaret band The Miami Showband at Buskhill, County Down, which resulted in the deaths of three of the bandmembers. Somerville was killed, along with Harris Boyle, when the bomb they had loaded onto the band's minibus exploded prematurely. His brother, John James Somerville (a former UDR soldier) was one of the three men convicted of the murders of bandmembers Brian McCoy, Fran O'Toole and Tony Geraghty.
He was allegedly a part of the UVF team that exploded a car bomb in Monaghan on 17 May 1974 which killed seven people.
William Wesley Somerville was born in about 1941 in Moygashel, County Tyrone to a Church of Ireland family with three brothers and two sisters. He was a textile worker by trade but also a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), which was a locally recruited infantry regiment of the British Army in Northern Ireland. On an unrecorded date he joined the illegal Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF); he was a member of the Portadown unit of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade. This brigade had been founded in 1972 by Billy Hanna, who appointed himself its first commander. Somerville was a close friend of senior UVF volunteer Robin Jackson, who assumed command of the Mid-Ulster Brigade upon the shooting death of Hanna. Jackson was alleged by many investigative journalists, including Joe Tiernan and Paul Larkin, of having been the man who had shot Hanna outside his home in Lurgan on 27 July 1975. Somerville was photographed alongside Jackson at Hanna's funeral.
...
Wikipedia