Wilfrid Spender Sir Wilfrid Bliss Spender , KCB , DSO , MC ( 6 October 1876 — 21 December 1960 ) was an army officer , colonial administrator and civil servant - being responsible for laying the foundations for the civil service of Northern Ireland . He served as Secretary to the Northern Ireland Cabinet , 1921 - 1925 , Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Finance , 1925 - 1944 . He was knighted in 1929 . His wife , Lady Spender ( née Alice Lilian Dean ; 1880 - 1966 ) , was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force Nursing Corps and worked in the Ulster Division Comforts Fund during World War I . Later in life he became a noted diarist . Family life . Wilfrid Bliss Spender was born in Plymouth , the son of Edward and Ellen ( née Rendle ) Spender . His father was co - founder of the " Western Morning News " in Plymouth ; his father and two elder brothers were later drowned whilst boating at Whitsand Bay outside Plymouth when he was one year old . Education / service . He was educated at Winchester College and the Staff College , Camberley . He obtained a commission first in the Devon artillery . In 1897 he joined the Royal Artillery , seeing service in Bermuda , Canada , Malta , England , Ireland , and India . After Camberley he was nominated to attend a naval war course , one of the first two army staff officers to be so chosen . In 1909 became a member of the home defence section of the Imperial Defence Committee , which was then involved with the general defence of the United Kingdom . He was at one point the youngest staff officer in the British army . He organized , and partly financed , a national petition against Home Rule , and helped establish the Junior Imperial League . He accepted an invitation to stand for Parliament , but withdrew when the rules were changed to place officers on half pay if they entered parliament . He signed the Ulster Covenant when it was opened for signature in England . In 1913 he was allowed to retire from his army commission , refusing to resign with the rank of Captain and £120 per year . A confidential inspection report of 1913 commented that Captain Spender had been led away by a ‘ too active conscience ’ and had been very injudicious , risking his prospects in life . While disputing his leaving the army , feeling his services were required in Ulster , he sought legal advice from Sir Edward Carson ; Carson invited Spender to Belfast to help organise the Ulster Volunteer Force . During a period of leave from service in India he met once again an old friend , Alice Lilian Dean , they were married within a few weeks . After a ten - day honeymoon he and his wife travelled to Belfast where Spender became Quartermaster General of the UVF , based at the Old Town Hall in Belfast , while remaining a director of his newspaper in Plymouth . In December 1913 , amidst widespread suspicions that sympathy for the Ulster cause might make army officers reluctant to move against the Ulster Volunteers , the CIGS Sir John French recommended that Spender be cashiered ( stripped of his commission - a social disgrace which disqualified the victim from any further Crown employment ) " “ pour decourager le autres ” " , but this did not happen . In April 1914 he was involved in co - ordinating the distribution of the UVF ' s rifles imported in the " Larne gun - running " incident . The Great War . In July 1914 Spender , as a retired officer , was told to hold himself ready to take up an appointment with the eastern command in Chatham . He returned to England and , after the outbreak of war , was transferred as general staff officer to the new 36th ( Ulster ) Division . He served with the Ulster division until 1916 , and was present at the Battle of the Somme , when he won the Military Cross for his part in the assault on Thiepval . He also won the DSO and was mentioned in despatches four times . In 1916 he was promoted Lieutenant - Colonel , and served with General Lord Cavan ' s corps , and then at advanced general headquarters working under Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig ( later created Lord Haig ) . He was strongly opposed to accepting a six - county option for the partition of Ireland , and on these grounds he declined an invitation from Carson to contest an Ulster constituency at Westminster . About the same time he gave some support to moves to launch a national party in England — " to promote Reform , the Union and Defence " — and considered seeking nomination for parliament in a constituency in Devon or Cornwall . Following the war he joined the Ministry of Pensions in London , but in 1920 he was approached by Carson and Craig and asked to return to Belfast to help reorganize the UVF . The result was the formation of the Ulster Special Constabulary . In 1921 he became Cabinet Secretary in Northern Ireland and , in 1925 , permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance . He opposed any discrimination on religious grounds in the civil service , but was unable to prevent Unionist members of the Northern Ireland parliament dominating the selection boards for other ranks . He was never a member of the Orange Order , despite claims to the contrary from certain quarters . Later life . Sir Wilfrid retired in 1944 and returned to England in 1955 , he died of heart failure on 21 December 1960 at the East Hill Hotel , his home at Liss in Hampshire . He was survived by Lady Spender ( died 1966 ) , whom he married in 1913 , and their only child , Patricia Daffodil ( born Belfast , 17 March 1923 ; married Richard G . Dingwall on 2 November 1946 ; killed in a climbing accident in Switzerland ) .