Fred Crawford and the UVF gun-running
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Fred Crawford and the UVF gun-running
CHLORINE AND METHODISM
Methodist College Belfast (MCB) has had many famous former pupils,
including a Nobel Laureate and several successful actors. But no Collegian has
been as divisive and controversial as Frederick Hugh Crawford.
In many ways, his family history mirrors that of the typical Ulster Protestant.
An ancestor of his, Reverend Thomas Crawford, came to Ireland in 1670,
during the Ulster Plantation. The Plantation was an attempt by King James I and
his successors to give Ulster a Protestant majority by encouraging British
landowners to settle there. It may seem surprising, but Fred Crawford‟s great-
grandfather, Alexander Crawford, was a United Irishman!
Alexander Crawford
Chlorine Gardens, in South Belfast, is discovered a new formula
where the Crawford family originally lived,
for chlorine bleach, and he
and it is named after their chlorine bleach
set up a small factory in
Lisburn. His son, Fred‟s
grandfather, moved the
business to Belfast in the
1830s, and became a
Methodist. Fred was born
in 1861, into a “solid
Methodist” family, and he
was one of the first pupils
at MCB.
Once he left MCB, Fred led a short, yet successful career in the shipping
industry, with Harland & Wolff and the White Star Line. He travelled around
the world, as far away as Australia. He returned to the family business in 1892,
but he soon went to South Africa to serve in the army during the Boer War, and
became a major. It was when he returned that he became interested in the
Unionist movement.
1
SIGNED IN BLOOD
The Unionist movement was led by upper-class Ulstermen. In a historical
paradox, they claimed to be patriotic, yet they armed themselves against their
own country in 1914. I believe that the Unionist leaders were more concerned
about their businesses than their national allegiances.
The Liberal government, led by Herbert Henry
Asquith from 1908, wished to give Ireland Home
Rule, a form of autonomy. Home Rule scared Fred
Crawford. If Ireland was granted autonomy, then he
believed that the Catholics would oppress the
Protestants. If trade ties were cut with Britain, then
many industries in Ulster would have lost a lot of
business, negatively affecting the families whose
wealth originated in these companies. The Crawford
family business would undoubtedly lose a lot of Prime Minister
money, as would Fred Crawford himself.
Formed in 1905, the Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) was the first united
Unionist front against Home Rule. Crawford was an active member, and
became a member of an inner committee, which “was formed to consider the
question of force”.
The UUC employed two main methods to resist
Home Rule. Firstly, there was the Ulster Covenant, a
petition signed by thousands of Unionists in
September 1912. It declared that “Home Rule would
be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster”,
and that if Parliament passed Home Rule, they would
“refuse to recognise its authority”. Along with almost
500,000 people, Crawford was a signatory of it. At
the time, it was claimed that Fred Crawford signed the Covenant in his own
blood, but recent scientific tests have disproved these claims.
The second method of Home Rule opposition was the 1913 formation of the
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the UUC‟s paramilitary wing. With his
aforementioned UUC committee, Fred Crawford masterminded the arming of
the UVF.
2
Stills from the BBC Newsline report “Fred Crawford „blood
signature‟ legend challenged”
3
SPIRO AND RIFLES
Many accounts of the 1914 UVF gunrunning exist. The Public Records Office
of Northern Ireland holds Crawford‟s diaries from the time as well as an
account called “The Arming of Ulster”. In 1947, Fred Crawford published the
short book “Guns for Ulster”, a more concise account of the gunrunning.
Malcolm, Fred‟s son claims that he wrote it himself, but “considered it was wise
to publish this little book as my father being the author”. Nevertheless, all of
these sources tell the same story – of how one man, despite numerous mistakes
and mishaps successfully armed Ulster Unionism.
Crawford placed advertisements in French,
Belgian, German and Austrian newspapers,
“asking for 10,000 second-hand rifles and two
million rounds of ammunition”. He gave his
name as H. Matthews (his middle name was
Hugh and his mother‟s maiden name
Matthews) of the Ulster Reform Club (a
Unionist gentlemen‟s club of which he was
Honourable Secretary). Some other members
of the club “demurred” at his action, so he
promptly resigned. Crawford claimed that this happened in 1906, but historian
Keith Haines claims in his book “Fred Crawford – Carson‟s Gunrunner” that the
advertisements were most likely to have been placed in 1910. In fact, Crawford
had admitted that “those days were so crowded with excitement and incidents
that I can only remember some of them, and not always in the order in which
they happened”.
From about 1910, Crawford began to obtain specimen rifles and bayonets, but
when he showed them to the UUC committee, some members were shocked,
being unaware that Crawford had been so serious about arming the unionist
movement. Many committee members stopped coming to meetings, and some
resigned, but Crawford dismissed them as “only a hindrance”. This is not the
only time he appears annoyed with the committee members. Throughout his
accounts of the gunrunning, he seems irritated that he needed their agreement
before he could progress with his plans.
The remaining committee members agreed on a particular model of the rifles
from the ones that Crawford had shown them, and they put in an order with a
4
German firm. After a few months and no delivery, Crawford travelled to
Germany to speak to the firm. At the Hamburg offices, he learnt that the head of
the firm had leaked information to the British Government, and that the deal
was now off. The firm would not hand over the money that the UUC had paid.
On inquiry, he discovered that the head of the firm was in Austria. Crawford
travelled to him, just to tell him how “he and his firm were a pack of swindlers”.
In Crawford‟s report of the gunrunning, he mentioned how the head of the firm
had acted in a similar way on making a deal with Central American rebels, and
how he had in fact ended up selling the arms to the government of that country,
which was probably Mexico. Apparently the rebel leader had words with the
dealer much in the same way that Crawford had reacted, except this time the
arms dealer was shot dead!
From Austria, Crawford travelled back to Hamburg, where he made contact
with Bruno Spiro, a Jewish arms dealer. Crawford always refers to Spiro as
„Benny‟ in his writings, the name of Bruno‟s father, and the founder of the
business. Crawford probably made this confusion because the business was
called „Benny Spiro‟.
In his account, Crawford speaks very highly of Spiro, saying “his name Ulster
ought never to forget”. Crawford told Spiro about his treatment by the other
arms company, so Spiro took over the contract, recovering their weapons. In
fact, the UUC only lost £20 thanks to Spiro‟s quick actions, and they recovered
all of their arms.
An arrangement for a shipment of the arms was made, and in 1911, crates
designated as “zinc plate” started to arrive in Belfast for the fictitious John
Ferguson & Co. One crate was intercepted by customs, but Spiro was able to
retrieve it under the pretence of a clerical error. The rest of the rifles were then
smuggled to Belfast via West Hartlepool in Northeast England. Soon after,
however, Crawford began to smuggle the arms through Edinburgh as “questions
were being asked”. It wasn‟t long before shipments were moved again, this time
to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Small shipments continued to be made for the next
few years.
In February 1913, Charles Clements, the 5th Earl of Leitrim started his own
minor gunrunning campaign. Clements, also known as Lord Leitrim, was
commander of the of the UVF‟s Donegal branch. Every week small amounts of
5
weaponry were transported from Birmingham to Portrush, Londonderry and
Mulroy Bay in Donegal by the Earl‟s chauffeur.
As well as getting guns from Germany, Crawford purchased a number of
machine guns in London. Assuming the name „John Washington Graham‟, he
spoke in an American accent as he purportedly bought the Maxim guns for use
in the ongoing Mexican Civil War.
In early June 1913, around seven thousand rifles, which
Crawford was storing in Hammersmith, London were
seized by the police. Crawford was storing the guns in a
disused inn, rented out to him by the brother-in-law of
Conservative MP William Bull, who was a staunch critic of
Home Rule. It is thought that Bull‟s alcoholic brother-in-
law had informed the police. Later on, this became known
William Bull as the Hammersmith Incident.
However, Crawford believed that the government were ignoring “any organised
attempt to import arms in large quantities to Ulster”. One week after the
Hammersmith Incident, he sent rifles to Belfast from Glasgow, Manchester,
Liverpool and Fleetwood in Lancashire. They were all seized by customs
officials because little precaution had been made to conceal them.
To the public, it was becoming clear that there was a very large gunrunning
operation, with two major attempts being discovered in the space of one week.
Crawford had succeeded in his aim of making the Liberal government admit
that there was “a real and great danger of serious trouble in Ulster if the Home
Rule Bill were passed”.
A police officer standing over the
arms seized in the Hammersmith
6
FROM HAMBURG TO LARNE
After the Hammersmith Incident, Crawford said that “the only thing to do was
to run the guns into Ulster in one large consignment”. Crawford proposed this
idea to leading Unionists James Craig and Edward Carson. At that time, the
Ulster Volunteer Force was a few thousand strong, and there weren‟t enough
guns for them all. Crawford‟s mission now was to smuggle enough guns into
Ulster to arm the whole UVF.
Edward Carson (left) and James Craig
(right) in 1922
In early 1914, Crawford went to Hamburg to discuss the possibility of a large
shipment with Bruno Spiro. At this time, Spiro already had 10,000 Vetteli rifles
and one million rounds of ammunition that Crawford had previously bought, but
which hadn‟t yet been shipped.
Crawford chose to buy 15,000 new Austrian rifles and 5,000 German Army
rifles. He liked these rifles the best because they were the most similar to the
British Army‟s, and therefore their ammunition was readily available.
The UUC committee were at first reluctant to accept the third option, as it was
the most expensive, at over £60,000 (over £6 million in today‟s money).
However, Crawford was able to convince Craig of its benefits, who in turn
persuaded the committee to approve the plan.
7
In February 1914, Crawford spoke with Carson in his London home: “Once I
cross to Hamburg there is no turning back for me ... I shall carry out the attempt
if I lose by life in the attempt ... It is for Ulster and her freedom I am working,
and that alone”. Carson recognised the danger Crawford was putting himself in,
saying, “I‟ll see you through this business even if I should go to prison for it.
You are the bravest man I have ever met.”
The next day, in Hamburg, Crawford made the final arrangements with Spiro.
As well as the third option‟s 20,000 guns, the 10,000 Vettelis, that had been
bought previously, were also to be part of the shipment. All the guns were to be
carefully packaged, with 6,000 bundles which were 75 lbs (34 kg) each. It took
about seven week for all of the weapons to be securely packaged, and in
Crawford‟s words, “the police made inquiries more than once”.
All the crates were labelled to either Texas or Mexico. At that time, the
Mexican Civil War was entering its last few months, and Crawford believed
that it would provide the perfect cover for such a large shipment of arms. This
also fitted in with his alias of John Washington Graham, which he was using to
sign all paperwork.
8
During the weeks that the guns were being prepared, Crawford made several
trips between the UUC in Belfast and Spiro in Hamburg. Soon the time came
for a boat to be bought to carry the guns across the North Sea. Crawford placed
advertisements in Scandinavian and German newspapers requesting a ship. In
early March 1914, Crawford once again went to Hamburg, except this time he
An 1890s photochrom of Bergen
NB The photochrom, or Aäc, process is a way of colourising black and white
photographs which was invented in Switzerland in the 1880s
was accompanied by Captain Andy Agnew, an experienced sailor. The two
most promising replies to the advertisements were both from Norway, so they
quickly made their way to Kristiania, the capital of Norway (it was renamed
„Oslo‟ in 1925). The first ship was located in Bergen, a fishing town on
Norway‟s south-western coast. The boat was called the SS (steamship) Fanny.
She was a small cargo ship, and wasn‟t very fast, at only 8 knots, but Crawford
deemed her “the proper thing for what I wanted”.
Worried that the police would stop a British-flagged ship going to Ulster,
Crawford took out a loan to buy the ship, in the Fanny‟s previous owner‟s
name, a Norwegian named Marthin Falck. In this way, she retained her
Norwegian flag.
Crawford thought it would be too conspicuous if the Fanny sailed into
Hamburg, so he arranged that Agnew, with the Fanny, would meet him at
9Langeland, a Danish island just north of Hamburg, on 30 March. Crawford
returned to Hamburg in order to organise a way of shipping the guns to
Langeland.
In his final Belfast meeting, Larne Harbour was decided upon as the place
where the guns were to be landed. There were lots of roads going out of Larne,
so even if the police and army got wind of the plan, it would be very difficult
for them to block off all access points. It would be easy to transport the guns to
Belfast, only 23 miles (37 km) away. However, the Fanny was not to ship the
guns all the way; the Fanny was to sail to Scotland, where other boats would
take her cargo.
Crawford arrived in Hamburg Hauptbahnhof for the final time, on 28 March
1914. He met Bruno Spiro, Elsa Kanzi, Spiro‟s “manageress”, and Fritz
Schneider, Spiro‟s shipping agent. The plan was for the guns to be transported
through the Kiel Canal, which connects Hamburg to the western side of the
Jutland peninsula. Crawford was to take a train to the end of the canal, and from
then on, he would take charge of the operation.
A 1914 postcard showing Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
At 11.30 p.m., an hour before the guns were due to leave, Crawford was having
dinner with Spiro, Kanzi and Schneider. Then, Crawford heard a voice, which
three times said “Go with the guns tonight, and don‟t lose sight of the rifles till
you have handed them over in Ulster”. If this really happened, we can‟t say,
because Crawford‟s diary doesn‟t mention it, the hallucination is first recorded
10years afterwards. Either way, Crawford decided to go with the rifles up the Kiel
Canal with Fritz Schneider.
After a night-time journey up the
canal, the lighters arrived at Kiel.
An inquisitive German official
stopped their progress, but a 100
mark bribe let them pass without
being searched. It was only a short
journey to Langeland and the
Fanny the next morning. All the
rifles were quickly loaded off the
lighters and onto the Fanny. Falck,
who was to be the vessel‟s skipper,
was convinced that there would be
From left to right: (standing) Fred no questions from the Danish
Crawford, Agnew, Spiro, (sitting) authorities. However, at 2 o‟clock
Falck and Helen Crawford (Fred‟s that afternoon, a small tug pulled
wife), onboard the SS Fanny in the
up alongside the Fanny. Onboard
Kiel Canal (taken in May 1914,
after the gunrunning)
was a Danish Port Officer, with
what Crawford described as “a face like a ferret”. The ship‟s manifest said that
the Fanny‟s “general cargo” was headed for Iceland. This was a major flaw in
the Unionists‟ plan, because at that time, Iceland was part of Denmark, and it
had its own Home Rule crisis. The officials returned to the mainland for the
paperwork to be inspected, while the loading of the guns continued.
One day later, the officials had not yet reappeared. The weather was poor, and
mist restricted visibility to about 300 metres. Crawford took the decision to
leave Langeland under the cover of the fog, and begin to make their way for
Ulster. Crawford gave Schneider letters for Belfast which finalised the location
in Scotland where the Fanny would land.
Crawford was very irritated to learn that the boat had only 40 hour‟s worth of
fuel and they had to stop off at a small Swedish town to refuel. Here, Crawford
made a drastic change of plan, deciding to take a southerly course when they
entered the North Sea. He believed that going to Scotland was what the British
government expected him to do, so Britain‟s north-western coast would be
monitored. He quickly sent off a letter changing the rendezvous location to
Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.
11They stopped at both Great Yarmouth and Dunkirk before arriving at Lundy
Island. At Great Yarmouth, Agnew got off; he was tasked with contacting
Carson, Craig and the UUC to inform them of the route change. When they
arrived at Lundy Island, there was no sign of the relief steamer. They gave the
chosen signal („X‟ in Morse Code) to every ship they saw, but none responded.
After over a day in the Bristol Channel, a ship began to approach them. It was
the SS Balmarino, which Crawford recognised as his fellow gunrunner, Lord
Leitrim‟s boat. Onboard was Agnew, who informed him of the UUC‟s request
for the gunrunning to be postponed as tensions in Ulster had recently escalated.
Crawford, adamant that the gunrunning would go ahead, left the Fanny in
Agnew‟s hands, and travelled to Dublin, via Wales. From there, he travelled to
Craigavon, the residence of James Craig (at that time the town of Craigavon
didn‟t exist). With their help, he persuaded the UUC committee to give him
permission to buy another steamer, which would bring the guns directly to
Larne. He went to Glasgow to buy the boat, called the Clydevalley, and then
waited for it in Llandudno, northern Wales. When the Clydevalley arrived,
Crawford took her charge and they sailed to Tuskar Rock, off the south-eastern
coast of Ireland.
The Fanny was scheduled to
meet them there, but there was
no sign of her. Crawford
believed that there had been a
mistake and that the Fanny had
gone to Great Yarmouth to meet
the Clydevalley. He hurriedly
Tuskar Rock and its iconic made his way to Great
lighthouse
Yarmouth, but upon arrival, he
received a telegram saying that the Fanny had in fact arrived at Tuskar, and that
the fully-loaded Clydevalley would meet him at Holyhead. Despite the
numerous mix-ups, everything seemed to have now worked out eventually. All
that had to be done now was for the boat to go to Larne. During the final leg of
the journey, the Clydevalley was renamed the Mountjoy II, after the ship that
broke the Siege of Derry in 1689.
12At around 10.30 p.m. on 25 April 1914, the Mountjoy II arrived at Larne
Harbour. Immediately, cranes went into action, loading other vessels with the
arms which were to be transported all over Ulster. Wilfred Spender, a retired
soldier and leading Unionist, organised the distribution of the weapons. He also
spearheaded the use of motorcars to distribute the weapons to UVF branches.
The whole process was over by about 5 a.m. the next morning (26 April 1914).
The UVF Motor Car Corps badge
– they were formed by Spender
especially for the gun-running
13Illustrations of the unloading of the Mountjoy II (top) and the
distribution of the guns in Bangor (bottom)
14HOME RULE AND PARTITION
The Unionist and anti-Home Rule movements were now as strong as they had
ever been; the gunrunning had given them a strong military and moral boost.
More important than the military benefits the Unionists gained from the
gunrunning was the message that it sent out. They showed that they would not
respect the House of Commons‟ decisions. The Unionist movement had shown
that they were not constitutionalists, and that they would take arms against
Parliament if its decisions didn‟t suit them.
The June 1913 gunrunning made the Liberals “admit” to there being a threat,
whereas the April 1914 gunrunning forced them to accept that there would be a
violent uprising if Home Rule passed. The political system was being
undermined, and in fact the gunrunning was in part organised by an MP, James
Craig.
Curragh Camp, County Kildare – British Army base during the early part Of
the 20th Century
The political system had also
been destabilised by the 20
March 1914 Curragh Incident,
where 57 army officers
threatened to resign, believing
that they were going to be
ordered to implement Home Rule in Ulster. The Curragh Incident is also
referred to as the Curragh Mutiny, but it technically wasn‟t a mutiny as the
officers didn‟t disobey orders, but was to resign before the orders were given.
It now seemed impossible for the Liberals to implement Home Rule. The UVF
would spring into action, and, as proved by the Curragh Incident, the army
would probably not stop them.
There had always been an armed republican faction in Ireland, but as the Home
Rule bills got nearer to becoming law, there seemed to be less need for one, so it
scaled down. After Larne, however, the republicans were facing an armed
unionist front, so they began to arm themselves as well. The Irish Republican
Brotherhood (IRB) created the Irish Volunteers (Óglaigh na hÉireann in Irish)
in November 1913, as a direct opponent to the UVF. The Irish Volunteers, later
15to be known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), had reached a membership of
180,000 by June 1914, the month of the Howth gunrunning. In much the same
way as the Larne gunrunning, arms were shipped from Germany to Ireland, but
this time to Howth, North Dublin.
Paradoxically, due to the threat of a large-scale war in Ireland, the Home Rule
debate became more peaceful. The UVF were now focusing on preventing their
arms being seized by either law-enforcement authorities or the Republican
movement. A temporary stalemate had formed, but despite this, an outbreak of
violence would probably have taken place were it not for the First World War.
On 18 September 1914, the Home Rule Act became law. Due to the ongoing
war, it wasn‟t planned to be implemented immediately. The majority of the
UVF, and some Irish Volunteers were fighting in the trenches, so it looked like
there would be no violence in Ireland until the war was over. At the time of the
Bill passing, many people still believed that the war would be over by
Christmas, so it is understandable why over a year later, the Republican
movement had become frustrated that Ireland was no closer to becoming
independent. The guns imported at Howth were put to use during the 1916
Easter Rising, which increased Irish support for Republicanism.
The longest lasting impact of the arming of the UVF is the partition of Ireland.
Craig was able to convince Parliament to leave 6 Irish counties out of Home
Rule, and these counties were to become Northern Ireland. The threat of the
UVF rebelling against a decision that they didn‟t agree with was integral to
Parliament‟s choice.
CONCLUSION
Fred Crawford is a hero to some, but a troublemaker to others. He is lauded by
the Unionist community and his memory lives on, as do the resounding impacts
of his exploits. It could be argued that his actions had a key role in the partition
of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland.
He can be considered a successful man, who stood up for what he believed in.
He took on the British Government, and eventually stopped Home Rule from
being implemented in Ulster.
Others would say that his actions instilled a distrust of democracy in the
Unionist community in Northern Ireland. It could be said that the sectarian
16attitudes still present in Northern Irish society today are partly due to the
success of the gunrunning.
Despite his actions, Crawford became a CBE in 1922. He died on 5 November
1952 and is buried in Belfast City Cemetery on the Falls Road.
-PRONI Documents-
Diary of Major Fred H Crawford (1914-1915) D1700/5/17/2/1-3
The Arming of Ulster – Fred Crawford‟s Account D1415/B/34
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