Drew Nelson '˜dedicated to his community'

Orange Order Grand Secretary Mr Nelson died on Monday aged 60 after a short illness.

Lewis Singleton, who worked alongside his friend and colleague at Nelson-Singleton solicitors for 30 years, said he dedicated his life to helping others.

“He always practised in Dromore and he always lived in Dromore – was very much of his community. He lived amongst his clients as any good country solicitor does,” Mr Singleton said.

“Drew spent his whole life giving back to his community and he saw the Orange Institution as a way of doing that. He opened his own office on the very first day he was entitled and able to practise on his own, in Dromore in 1983. It was a very brave move.”

Over the last decade Mr Nelson had been acting more as a consultant within the business but was still involved in the daily workings of the practice.

“Drew came from a farming background and was the first of his family to get a third level education and go into the professions,” he said.

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Mr Singleton said his friend and colleague was a great admirer of the community spirit within the Catholic community as something many Protestants could learn from.

“All the solicitors in this practice have never worked anywhere else – and three of the staff have never worked anywhere else – and that is why we are taking this so bad. Even though he had stepped back a bit over the last 10 years it was still Drew’s practice. We knew this was coming but that doesn’t make it any easier.”

Mr Singleton, the assistant grand master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, said that although there will be those who criticise the Institution whatever what it does, the former grand secretary was responsible for a positive transformation in how it was perceived by the wider community.

“It’s not just because of Drew, but he was the one who took it down a different road, because it had to be taken down a different road. It is now flourishing in a way it has never flourished before. He was very astute and knew that Northern Ireland had changed and will continue to change.

“People picked up on what he said – that the Institution was keen to play its role in Northern Ireland moving forward. He wasn’t looking back, although he’d served in the UDR and lost a lot of friends, and a lot of clients [during the Troubles], who were murdered. Living among the community he knew a lot of part-time police and part-time UDR, but he also knew that things had changed and that Northern Ireland had to move forward too.”

Mr Singleton said his friend’s tireless work as an ambassador for the Order was unprecedented – particularly around the new museums of Orange heritage in Belfast and at Sloan’s House in Loughgall.

“The visit of Prince Charles was in many ways the culmination of everything Drew had done. Prince Charles would not have been at Sloan’s House, in fact there would not have been a Sloan’s House, only for Drew Nelson. There wouldn’t have been a Schomberg House museum.

“That was the first time ever a member of the Royal Family visited an Orange venue and we had schoolchildren there from both traditions. That was Drew’s legacy.”