Winston Churchill Rea

Winston Churchill Rea (born 1950 or 1951), known as Winkie Rea, is the former leader of the Red Hand Commando (RHC) loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland. Part of a leading loyalist family, he has been active in paramilitarism since the early years of the Troubles.

Rea was born in about 1950 or 1951 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and brought up as a Protestant on the loyalist Shankill Road. Although his full name was Winston Churchill Rea, he was better known by his nickname Winkie. Sometime after the outbreak of the Troubles, his parents emigrated to Australia to get away from the violence. In his youth he often attended the rallies of Ian Paisley. It is not known when he joined the Red Hand Commando, a loyalist paramilitary organisation founded in 1972 by John McKeague and closely affiliated with the larger Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He eventually rose in its ranks to later become leader, succeeding McKeague.

Rea met Elizabeth Spence, daughter of UVF leader Gusty Spence, who was imprisoned at the time. In April 1972, he travelled to Long Kesh Prison, where he obtained permission from Spence to marry her. Immediately after the wedding, Spence absconded, and he remained on the run for four months.

In 1973, Rea was imprisoned for eight years after being found in possession of a Sterling submachine gun and for having driven two cars to and from the scene of a loyalist attack on Divis Street in nationalist west Belfast. On 18 February 1973, Catholic postmen Anthony Coleman and David McAleese were gunned down and killed by a passing car. Rea was tried in a Diplock Court where he had protested his innocence to no avail. Despite his association with the Red Hand Commando, he joined Spence in the UVF section of Long Kesh.

...
Wikipedia