Career
At the time he was a lieutenant colonel. Wilford was exonerated by the Widgery tribunal that April and on 3 October 1972 he was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. However, the Saville Inquiry, many years later, determined that Wilford had expressly disobeyed an order from a superior officer, Brigadier Pat MacLellan, who prohibited Wilford from sending troops into the Bogside. The Saville Inquiry found that MacLellan was not to blame for the shootings.
Lord Saville said Colonel Wilford was wrong to send soldiers into an unfamiliar area where there was risk of attack from Irish republican paramilitaries, in circumstances where the soldiers" response would risk civilians being killed or injured.
He added: "His failure to comply with his orders, instead setting in train the very thing his brigadier has prohibited him from doing, cannot be justified..Colonel Wilford should not have launched an incursion into the Bogside."
Colonel Wilford was known locally in Derry in the aftermath as the "Butcher of the Bogside". On 4 November 1972, Wilford captured the Ulster Volunteer Force leader Gusty Spence, then on the run from prison.
He always maintained his soldiers were fired upon first and in 1992 in a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary he stated "I don"t believe my soldiers were wrong", reasoning "If you get into an enormous crowd which is out to make mischief you are in the first instance a party to lieutenant" In 1998 he stated he was angry at Tony Blair"s intention of setting up the Saville Inquiry and that he should not apologise for lieutenant In 1999, speaking on British Broadcasting Corporation radio "he angered the relatives of those killed and injured during Bloody Sunday by suggesting that almost all Northern Ireland Catholics were closet republicans.
Although he later apologised for his comments, the army distanced itself from him".
Wilford has claimed he has been made a scapegoat since that day and has been abandoned by the military hierarchy and British Government. Despite this he didn"t retire from the army until 1983, although he stated he felt constantly passed over for promotion, ending his career only one rank higher than his 1972 rank of colonel. Serving in the 1St battalion and also leading c coy in cookstown in 1997.
Although not liked or loved by his trooos he successfuly joined whitehall. name="proud">Sherwood, Deborah (25 January 1998).
"I was proud to lead the Paras on Bloody Sunday.. don"t dare say sorry for me, Mr Blair.". Sunday Mirror (London).
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In 2000, he was living outside the United Kingdom. In the wake of the release of the Saville report, he has refused to make any further comments, stating "I don"t want to talk about lieutenant
lieutenant"s all been said.".
