TheUlster Volunteer Service Corps (UVSC) was anUlster loyalist vigilante and paramilitary movement active inNorthern Ireland during the early 1970s. Initially the steward group for the Ulster Vanguard (later theVanguard Unionist Progressive Party), under the titleVanguard Service Corps, it continued to exist after becoming independent of that movement.
The group was established as the paramilitary wing of the Ulster Vanguard in 1972, and wore a military-style uniform.[1] Its main role was to provide protection for Vanguard members whilst they were making speeches.[2] Some members of the group were also known to be members of theUlster Defence Regiment.[3] Their presence was described as giving a "Mosleyite quality" to the Vanguard.[4] According to loyalist activist Sam McClure, Service Corps membership was accompanied with a solemn swearing-in ceremony althoughDavid Trimble, a Vanguard activist, dismissed this claim as "utter balls".[5]
They were under the leadership of the overall Vanguard Command and were officially discouraged from involvement in violence and lawlessness. Nevertheless, they were infiltrated by a number ofUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) members from their inception.[6] According toRUC Special Branch reports, they had begun as a group of militants within the Vanguard movement who initially styled themselves the Vanguard Volunteers before formalising as the Vanguard Service Corps.[6]
They adopted the name Ulster Volunteer Service Corps in 1973 after the establishment of the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party.[1] The group was led byHugh Petrie, who was also a leading figure in theLoyalist Association of Workers.[7] Petrie represented the UVSC on theUlster Army Council following the establishment of that group in 1973 in the run-up to theUlster Workers' Council strike.[8]
During the strike itself, the UVSC was part of a faction of minor loyalist paramilitary groups, also including theOrange Volunteers,Ulster Special Constabulary Association, andDown Orange Welfare, who pushed forBill Craig to take a leading role in the running of the strike. The largerUlster Defence Association and UVF had hoped to exclude politicians from the conduct of the strike as much as possible but ultimately acquiesced and allowed both Craig andIan Paisley to play prominent public roles in the stoppage.[9]
Following the strike, the group helped to form theUlster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee, which replaced the Ulster Army Council in 1974.[10]Royal Ulster Constabulary reports at the time state that the UVSC fell apart in 1974, presumably after the strike.[11]