Death of civil servant who later spoke up for Northern Ireland's place in the UK

William Beattie Smith’s life came to an end at the City Hospital on Thursday, after a long illness with leukaemia, which for many years was successfully suppressed.

Dr Smith was co-editor with Professor John Wilson Foster of ‘The Idea of the Union,’ in which a number of pro Union voices tried to counterbalance the pro ‘New Ireland’ nationalist narrative that has become so influential since Brexit.

Contributors included the late Lord Trimble, who wrote a scathing essay about the Northern Ireland Protocol, the economist Graham Gudgin, the former Irish diplomat Ray Bassett and the News Letter editor Ben Lowry, with a forward by Baroness (Kate) Hoey.

Dr Smith, who like Prof Foster wrote a chapter in the book that they edited, also became a regular contributor to the News Letter, in the form of letters and columns that challenged many anti unionist assumptions.

In the book essay he borrowed a phrase coined by the former prime minister of Northern Ireland Terence O’Neill and said how unionism is “again at the crossroads”.

Dr Smith wrote: “In this challenging context, unionism has to choose between two broad paths: to keep muddling on with a system which is clearly broken, or to grip the problem resolutely, demand changes in the Agreement, and make Stormont work well for most voters, irrespective of their community background.”

Educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, Dr Smith – known as Bill – later studied at the University of Sussex and Stanford University in California.

Dr Smith worked with the Department of Health as a social policy administrator and spent 10 years as Chair of the Ulster-Scots Academy Advisory Group.

Latterly he joined the Malone House Group, which challenges anti UK state claims about the Troubles. Its convenor Jeff Dudgeon, who once worked under Dr Smith in the health department, said: “He was actually a lot more political than I realised but kept matters to himself when a civil servant,”

Alongside his political career, Dr Smith funded Cara-Friend, an LGBT community organisation in Northern Ireland, and the AIDS Helpline NI in the 80s.

Dr Smith’s book From Violence to Power Sharing was published by the US Institute of Peace in 2011.

Earlier this year, aware that his cancer was now terminal, Dr Smith published a poetry collection, Irregularities.

He said: “Prompted by the fear of death I suppose, between waking and sleeping, in those 15 minutes before falling asleep the ideas just came to me.

“Most of my written work has been in the form of official documents or academic analysis — very different styles and formats, but I have found the process liberating and therapeutic. I hope my readers get as much satisfaction from reading them as I did from writing them.”

Dr Smith is survived by wife Mary, children Rosie, CJ, Anna, and Jamie, stepchildren Ben and Matt, and grandchildren Neala, Llara, Leila, Isla, and Fionn.

The funeral is at St George's Church, High Street in Belfast tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11am.