Wallace Browne, Baron Browne of Belmont explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Browne of Belmont
Constituency Am1:Belfast East
Assembly1:Northern Ireland
Term Start1:7 March 2007
Term End1:24 March 2011
Predecessor1:Michael Copeland
Successor1:Sammy Douglas
Office2:Lord Mayor of Belfast
Order2:62nd
Term Start2:1 June 2005
Term End2:1 June 2006
Successor2:Patrick McCarthy
Predecessor2:Tom Ekin
Office:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start:24 July 2006
Life peerage
Office3:Member of
Belfast City Council
Constituency3:Victoria
Term Start3:15 May 1985
Term End3:2010
Predecessor3:District created
Successor3:John Hussey
Birth Date:29 October 1947
Birth Place:Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality:British
Party:Democratic Unionist Party
Alma Mater:Queen's University Belfast

Wallace Hamilton Browne, Baron Browne of Belmont (born 29 October 1947), is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician, who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2006, and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 2007 to 2011.

Political career

Browne, a long-serving member of the DUP Central Executive; was a member of Belfast City Council for the Victoria electoral area from 1985 until 2010.

During his time on Belfast City Council, Browne was High Sheriff of the City in 2002 and Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2005–06.

In 2007, Browne was elected in the Assembly elections for the East Belfast seat. He remained a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly until 2011. During his time in the Assembly, he represented his party on various committees, including the Justice Committee, Culture and Arts Committee and the Audit Committee. Browne also served as chairman of the Assembly Procedures Committee.

Since 2006, he has served in the House of Lords. He was one of the first three members of the DUP to be introduced to the second chamber as a life peer, giving the party its first-ever representation in the House of Lords. The other two being Maurice Morrow, the chairman of the DUP, and Eileen Paisley, the wife of the late Leader of the DUP, Ian Paisley; all became "working" life peers.[1] Browne was raised to the peerage as Baron Browne of Belmont, of Belmont in County Antrim on 12 June 2006.[2]

Browne has been an active working peer during his time in the House of Lords, regularly contributing to debates on a range of issues including: Restoration of the Devolved Institutions in Northern Ireland,[3] Armed Forces Veterans, Military [4] Brexit,[5] Historical Abuse and Gambling. In 2017, Browne secured the first focused debate in the House of Lords on the issue of online gambling.[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Personal life

Before he was elected as a member of the NI Assembly in 2007, Browne was previously a grammar school teacher. Browne was also a long-serving trustee of the Somme Association. Browne, a former pupil of Campbell College, Belfast is a graduate of Queen's University, Belfast graduating in 1970 with a degree in zoology[12]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Search for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Lord Browne of Belmont. TheyWorkForYou.
  2. Web site: London Gazette article . www.thegazette.co.uk. 2021-05-11.
  3. Web site: Tweet . twitter.com. 2021-05-11.
  4. Web site: Northern Ireland: Legacy of the Troubles - Question for Short Debate. TheyWorkForYou.
  5. News: Brexit: Dublin needs to recognise who its real friends are, says Trimble. Belfasttelegraph. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
  6. Online Gambling: Problem Gamblers and the Multi-Operator Self Exclusion Scheme. Thomas. Brown. 7 September 2021. lordslibrary.parliament.uk.
  7. https://www.care.org.uk/news/latest-news/northern-ireland-has-%E2%80%9Cextraordinary%E2%80%9D-rate-problem-gambling-says-northern-ireland
  8. Web site: Online Gambling - Motion to Take Note. TheyWorkForYou.
  9. Web site: Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019: Section 3(5) - Tuesday 7 January 2020 - Hansard - UK Parliament. hansard.parliament.uk.
  10. Web site: Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Bill [HL] - Monday 28 October 2019 - Hansard - UK Parliament]. hansard.parliament.uk.
  11. Web site: Brexit: Negotiations - Tuesday 20 November 2018 - Hansard - UK Parliament. hansard.parliament.uk.
  12. Web site: Wallace Browne MLA. 2 March 2009.