Remembering Viscount Janric Craigavon

Janric Craig, third Viscount Craigavon, died on 31 March 2025. He was a founding trustee of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) and a committed trustee of the Birth Control Trust (BCT), where I worked as director. He was also a longstanding member of the All-Party Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health, and of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group.

Janric was born in 1944 into a prominent Ulster family – his grandfather was James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He worked as a chartered accountant before succeeding to his father's title in 1974, whereupon he entered the House of Lords as a crossbench Peer.

Janric was one of the hereditary Peers elected to remain following the House of Lords Act 1999, an attainment that was no surprise to those of us who had worked with him. He was not a Peer who paraded his status or heritage, but he understood Parliament and worked hard to show it at its best. This included explaining procedure to advocates of causes he supported, and also guiding visitors on a tour of Big Ben, after which he would generously load them with gifts.

As well as advising PET on Parliamentary procedure and helping PET to create a network of supporters in the House of Lords, Janric was also the charity's self-appointed official photographer. He took photos at a number of significant PET events, and generously sent multiple (physical) copies so that they could be distributed to people in the charity's orbit.

Janric was a Parliamentary anchor for those of us campaigning for humanist causes in which he sincerely believed. For me, as director of BCT, that cause was a woman's right to decide on the future of her pregnancy. And I can say quite honestly that in those years when abortion was not a fashionable cause (and was certainly thought to be far less acceptable than it is today), Janric – a decidedly upper-class man – was more helpful, quietly facilitating Parliamentary campaigns to defend abortion's upper time limit and to introduce the abortion pill, than any other Parliamentarian in the Upper House.

Janric always came across as an unlikely aristocrat. Although he wasn't shy of voicing his opinion on the floor of the House, he had a shy and hesitant manner that sometimes meant he was misunderstood. Whenever he phoned, there was always a short silence followed by the muttered announcement 'Craigavon here'. On one occasion, this prompted a new (and decidedly down-to-earth) BCT secretary to shout across the office 'There's a chap called Craig on the phone – or should I call him Mr Avon?'.

From that moment on, Viscount Craigavon was referred to by us as 'that chap called Craig'. I think he rather enjoyed the familiarity.