It is with great sadness that I write that the 3^rd Viscount Craigavon died yesterday the 31 Mar 25.

Janric Fraser Craig was born in 1944 and after attending Eton College he studied at the University of London where he attained both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree before going on to studying to become a Chartered Accountant.

In 1974, when Janric Craig was 30 years of age his father, the 2^nd Viscount Craigavon, died and the then, Hon Janric Fraser Craig became the 3^rd Viscount Craigavon. He chose to sit as a cross bencher (ergo an independent person allied to no political party) in the House of Lords.  In 1999 when the House of Lords Act changed the right of hereditary Lords to sit in the upper house, Viscount Lord Craigavon was one of only 92 hereditary peers elected to stay in the house.

I had the honour of meeting Lord Janric Craig, 3^rd Viscount Craigavon a number of times and established a tremendous relationship with him on behalf of the Ancre Somme Association. He was an astonishingly straight forward man, who knew what he wanted and was used to getting it. He shared with me that he had never made comment in the House of Lords on Northern Ireland, a fact he explained quietly over a cup of coffee, in a rather shy manner, that because he as Viscount Craigavon would be jumped upon and quoted. He also admitted to me that he had never visited Ulster and at this stage of his life he would be afraid of not understanding NI and all its social nuances and that he was sure people would expect a NI Viscount to know and understand as second nature.

Lord Janric understood the ethos of the Ancre Somme Association Charity and appreciated that as 3^rd Viscount Craigavon he was the custodian to numerous items of cultural importance to Northern Ireland. It was in this particular vein that he was exceptionally generous to the Ancre Somme Association when he donated to the Ancre Somme Association numerous priceless pieces of the 1^st Viscount’s uniforms and the Craigavon’s families’ possessions including two beautiful chairs from the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.   

Lord Janric Craig attended the House of Lords as regular as clockwork and participated in this, what he considered his civic duty, throughout his life. He was recognised by several foreign nations for his sterling work, in 1998 he was made a Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland, in 1999 he was made a Commander of the Swedish Royal Order of the Polar Star and in 2006 he was made a Knight of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.

Janric Craig, 3^rd Viscount Craigavon was a lifelong Humanist who never married so the title Viscount Craigavon dies with him, he was an honour to have known and a generous benefactor to the Ancre Somme Association Charity.

Lt Col Ant B Maher

Patron

Ancre Somme Association Charity