Peter Brush

Lt. Col Peter Brush was the leader of Down Orange Welfare, a paramilitary group that was prominent in Northern Ireland for a period in the 1970s .Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, pp 44-45. 
==Name==
Col Brush is referred to in various sources as 'Peter' or 'Edward' Brush. For example, Peter Brush is the name given by Robert Fisk in The Point of No Return , his book on the 1974 Ulster Workers Council strike.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, pp 44-45. The Imperial War Museum lists his memoirs as those of Lt. Col ‘Peter’ Brush CB DSO, suggesting that was a nickname that he was commonly known by.The Northern Ireland Conflict Related Artefacts Database, CAIN, University of Ulster, accessed 4 August 2009.
He is listed as Lt-Col. Edward James Augustus Howard Brush (1901-1984) in Sydney Elliot and W.D. Flackes's Northern Ireland: A Political Directory, and this is almost certainly the correct version of his full name.W.D. Flackes, Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-88, Blackstaff Press, 1989, p.86.
==Career==
===War Record===
Brush was wounded in the defence of Calais in 1940.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, p.67.According to Fisk, he became acquainted with Airey Neave, who was also captured at Calais.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, p.227. He subsequently spent three years in POW camps.W.D. Flackes, Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-88, Blackstaff Press, 1989, p.86.
===Post-war career===
After the war, Brush took up farming in Co. Down where he became Deputy Lord Lieutenant and a leading figure in the Territorial Army.W.D. Flackes, Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-88, Blackstaff Press, 1989, p.86.
===Down Orange Welfare===
In 1973, it emerged that Colonel Brush had built up a paramilitary group known as Down Orange Welfare over the previous two years.W.D. Flackes, Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-88, Blackstaff Press, 1989, p.86.
===Ulster Workers Council===
He was brought on to the Ulster Workers Council (UWC) in early 1974 in his capacity as leader of Down Orange Welfare.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, pp 44-45.
During the UWC strike in May that year his men blockaded parts of North Down.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, p.94.
William Craig claimed later that Brush was in touch with senior Army officers at Lisburn during the strike.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, p.102.
Brush neverthless believed he was under Army surveillance and claimed to have spotted a plain-clothes patrol tailing him in the second week of the strike.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, p.102.
Brush was one of a number of UWC leaders who took part in a rally at Stormont following the collapse of the power-sharing executive on 28 May.Robert Fisk, The Point of No Return, The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, André Deutsch, 1975, p.223.
===After the strike===
In October 1974, Brush resigned as Deputy Lord Lieutenant of County Down.W.D. Flackes, Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-88, Blackstaff Press, 1989, p.86.
In the 1975 constitutional convention elections, he was elected to represent South Down for the Ulster Unionist Party.W.D. Flackes, Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-88, Blackstaff Press, 1989, p.86.
==Notes==
Brush, PeterBrush, Peter