Victims’ families ‘will not mourn’ Bloody Sunday commander who ‘left terrible legacy’

The Bloody Sunday Trust has said Wilford, who was awarded an OBE by the Queen not long after the massacre in January 1972, “lived in a constant state of denial”.

The Commander of the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday died at the age of 90 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Wilford maintained until his death that his soldiers were fired upon on Bloody Sunday despite the Saville Inquiry conclusively finding that all those killed were unarmed civilians.

In 2010 then Prime Minister David Cameron said the inquiry was “absolutely clear” and there were “no ambiguities” about the conclusions.

Cameron told the Commons: “What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable.

It was wrong.”

He added: “The government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces, and for that, on behalf of the government and on behalf of the country, I am deeply sorry.”

Tony Doherty, Chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust whose father was murdered on Bloody Sunday, said that “the passing of Derek Wilford, while felt by his family, will not be mourned by the families of the innocent men and boys whose lives were taken by armed British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday.”

He added: “Colonel Wilford lived in a constant state of denial, never once accepting any measure of responsibility for his actions on that fateful day.

“History, though, will ensure that his actions that led directly to the deaths of many innocent people which, in turn, led to years of conflict and hardship for our communities, will be properly recognised.

“He left a terrible legacy and will rightly be remembered for that.”

Former BBC journalist Peter Taylor was in Derry on Bloody Sunday and interviewed Wilford a number of times, including as recently as 2019.

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle he said the 1 Para “hard men” with a “fearsome reputation” were brought in the week before Bloody Sunday because there was going to be a demonstration at Magilligan internment camp.

“Derek Wilford was adored by his men and the thing about Derek Wilford, and I interviewed him on two or three occasions over the past 50 years, is that he told me in my last interview, he would believe until his dying day that his soldiers were fired upon,” Mr Taylor added.

“”Derek Wilford believed that because in a way, he had to be believe it.

He believed his men would never be responsible for what they were being accused of doing.”

The admiration Taylor spoke of was documented in the Saville report by a soldier known as Private L who recalled seeing him at Kells Walk ramp in the Bogside: “Our spirits certainly rose to see him – he was not like Colonel Gray, his predecessor.

“He was always with us on the front line and this boosted our confidence.

“My recollection now is that Colonel Wilford said, ‘In your own time, commence firing, if you have a target’ or ‘take shots when you are ready’, or words to such effect.”

The Inquiry recorded that Colonel Wilford later gave an instruction that if anyone was to fire it should be Sergeant K, “because he was the regimental sniper”.

In his own 1972 statement, Wilford said, “I warned them all to keep their heads down and to fire only at identifiable targets.”

At Widgery, Wilford said he saw one of his soldiers “firing shots”, but it was then put to him that he had seen a soldier “fire one shot”, and he agreed with that proposition.

There was no evidence after the Widgery Inquiry, widely regarded as a whitewash, that Wilford provided the name of a soldier he had witnessed firing from Kells Walk at someone next to a rubble barricade.

However, many years later in a written statement to the Saville Inquiry, Wilford changed his mind, arguing he “did not now recall seeing the soldier firing”.

Lord Saville noted: “He could not now identify any of the soldiers at the low wall, nor could he say whether he had seen the soldier fire more than one shot, although he inclined to the view that he had not.”