CLAUDE WILTON: DERRY SOLICITOR Claude Wilton, who has died at 89, was a legend in the city: a leading figure in the early days of the civil rights movement, a solicitor who championed the underprivileged, and a sportsman.
Twice he stood for election to the old Stormont parliament in the unionist constituency of Londonderry city. The unofficial election slogan was: "Vote for Claude, the Catholic Prod".
One of his distinguishing features was to never wear socks, summer or winter. In his profession, he was known as the poor man's solicitor. Many clients were never charged. He helped some financially in the days before bridging loans.
Journalist Eamonn McCann called Claude the unpaid advocate of every Bogsider in trouble. "The advice always was 'Say nothing till you see Claude'," McCann said. "In his later years, Claude did a lot of industrial tribunals for people, mostly unpaid. It was the sort of work an ordinary solicitor doesn't want to take, because it's mundane and low-paid.
"Claude was not typical of the rising generation who got involved in the civil rights movement. He was a successful solicitor. He didn't have to involve himself. There was nothing in it for him."
But he did, becoming a member of the Derry Citizens Action Committee set up after police attacked a march on October 5th, 1968. He was a unifying figure in sometimes difficult circumstances. In 1968-9 there were sharp divisions in the civil rights movement in Derry. Claude managed the difficult task of being on good terms with everybody.
Football was his big sporting love, and he was capped as an amateur international. He played in both the Irish League and League of Ireland.
Ivan Cooper, another former civil rights leader, remembers as a young man playing on the same junior team with Claude - who was 25 years older, and able to set the pace. In his later years, Claude was a director of Derry City, when the club returned to senior football in the League of Ireland. As well as football, he was an accomplished rugby player, cricketer and boxer.
The football came from his uncle Jimmy (later Sir Jimmy) Wilton, a former Irish international. But Claude very much rejected his uncle's politics: Sir Jimmy was a unionist mayor of the city, in the days when Londonderry Corporation was gerrymandered against the Catholic majority.
That was a sign of how steeped the Wilton family was in unionism. The Memorial Hall, headquarters of the Apprentice Boys, has four foundation stones: Wiltons laid three of them. Claude turned his back on that unionist establishment, and gravitated towards the city's working classes.
He was born in Eden Terrace, on the city side of the River Foyle. He was the second of two children of Robert and Annie (née Cameron), four years younger than his sister Mary. Claude was educated at Foyle College, Magee College and Trinity College Dublin. He then qualified as a solicitor, practising for some 40 years until retiring about 20 years ago.
He is survived by his wife, Monica, a niece, two nephews, and their families.
Claude Wilton: born February 12th, 1919; died September 24th, 2008