Robert Lundy Robert Lundy , ( fl . 1689 ) ( died 1717 ) , was Governor of Londonderry during the Siege of Derry . Biography . Nothing is known of Lundy ' s parentage or early life ; but he had seen service in the foreign wars before 1688 , when he was at Dublin with the rank of Lieutenant - Colonel in the regiment of Lord Mountjoy . When the apprentices of Derry closed the gates in the face of the Earl of Antrim , who was approaching the city at the head of an Irish Catholic force in the interests of James II , the Viceroy Tyrconnel dispatched Mountjoy to pacify the Protestants . Mountjoy and his regiment were well received in the north , and the citizens of Derry permitted him to leave within their walls a small Protestant garrison under the command of Lundy , who assumed the title of governor . Popular feeling in Derry ran so strongly in favour of the Prince of Orange that Lundy quickly declared himself an adherent of King William III , and he obtained from him a commission confirming his appointment as governor . Whether Lundy was a deliberate traitor to the cause he had embraced with explicit asseveration of fidelity in a signed document , or whether , as the historian Lord Macaulay suggests , he was merely incompetent or cowardly , cannot certainly be known . What is certain is that from the moment Derry was threatened by the troops of King James , Lundy used all his endeavours to paralyse the defence of the city . In April 1689 he was in command of a force of Protestants who encountered some troops under Richard Hamilton at Strabane , when , instead of holding his ground , he told his men that all was lost and ordered them to shift for themselves ; he himself was the first to take flight back to Derry . King James , then at Omagh on his way to the north , similarly turned in flight towards Dublin on hearing of the skirmish , but returned next day on receiving the true account of the occurrence . On 14 April English ships appeared in the Foyle with reinforcements for Lundy under Colonel Cunningham . Lundy dissuaded Cunningham from landing his regiments , representing that a defence of Derry was hopeless ; and that he himself intended to withdraw secretly from the city . At the same time he sent to the enemy ' s headquarters a promise to surrender the city at the first summons . As soon as this became known to the citizens Lundy ' s life was in danger , and he was vehemently accused of treachery . When the enemy appeared before the walls Lundy gave orders that there should be no firing . But all authority had passed out of his hands . The people flew to arms under the direction of Major Henry Baker and Captain Adam Murray , who organized the famous defence in conjunction with the Rev . George Walker under the refrain " No Surrender " . Lundy , to avoid popular vengeance , hid himself until nightfall , when by the connivance of Walker and Murray he made his escape in disguise . He was apprehended in Scotland and sent to the Tower of London . He was excluded from the Act of Indemnity in 1690 , but his subsequent fate is unknown . Lundy is reviled in popular Ulster unionist culture to this day as a traitor and is burnt in effigy during the celebrations to mark the anniversary of the shutting of the gates of Derry in 1688 . A ' Lundy ' has also become a byword for traitor for unionists and loyalists . Ian Paisley regularly denounced many people , including Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher , Captain Terence O ' Neill and First Minister David Trimble , as Lundies .