Trevor King

James Trevor King, also known as "Kingso" (1 July 1953^[1] – 9 July 1994), was a British Ulster loyalist and a senior member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He was commander of the UVF's "B" Company, 1st Belfast Battalion, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel. On 16 June 1994, he was one of three UVF men gunned down by the Irish National Liberation Army as he stood on the corner of Spier's Place and the Shankill Road in West Belfast, close to the UVF headquarters. His companion Colin Craig was killed on the spot, and David Hamilton, who was seriously wounded, died the next day in hospital. King was also badly injured; he lived for three weeks on a life-support machine before making the decision himself to turn it off.^[2]

Two days after the shooting, the UVF retaliated against Irish nationalists by carrying out the Loughinisland massacre against the Heights Bar, in which six Catholic customers were killed as they watched the Republic of Ireland play Italy in the World Cup football match.

There are several murals in the Shankill Road area commemorating King. One of these is a mural and plaque dedicated to him, David Hamiliton and William "Frenchie" Marchant, which stands at the Spiers Place and Shankill Road junction. An oversized mural painted on the gable end of a house in Disraeli Street, Woodvale, features a portrait of King with an inscription from a poem by Siegfried Sassoon.