James Craig
British politician
Born on: January 8, 1871Died on: November 24, 1940
Aged: 69 years 321 days (838 months)
Birth Sign: Capricorn
James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, PC, PC (NI), DL, was a leading Irish unionist and a key architect of Northern Ireland as a devolved region within the United Kingdom.
During the Home Rule Crisis of 1912–14, he defied the British government in preparing an armed resistance in Ulster to an all-Ireland parliament.
He accepted partition as a final settlement, securing the opt out of six Ulster counties from the dominion statehood accorded Ireland under the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.
From then until his death in 1940, he led the Ulster Unionist Party and served Northern Ireland as its first Prime Minister.
He publicly characterised his administration as a "Protestant" counterpart to the "Catholic state" nationalists had established in the south. Craig was created a baronet in 1918 and raised to the Peerage in 1927.
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