David Trimble: ‘He went to church every Sunday – no matter where in world he was’

Rev David Knox was minister of Harmony Hill Presbyterian Church in Lisburn from 1992-2017, which the Trimble family still attends and which is the venue for Lord Trimble’s funeral on Monday at 12.30pm. 

Asked about the peer’s faith, Rev Knox told the News Letter: “He was very dedicated, he never missed a Sunday. He might have been all over the world but he would still try and make it on Sunday.

“He would bring me orders of service from all over the world. And he would send me things that he thought I would be interested in. So he was a serious Christian man.”

As he travelled so much he was not involved in midweek life of the church, Rev Knox said, however his wife Daphne “was very involved and still is”. All four of their children – Richard, Victoria, Nicholas and Sarah – became communicant members of the church, completing formal classes on the meaning of taking communion.

Asked if Lord Trimble’s faith went further than his exceptional intellect, Rev Knox said: “I think very much he was a serious Christian. He believed in reconciliation, I mean there was a growth in his politics and his understanding and so on, so he grew.”

When in London on Sundays he attended the Crown Court Church of Scotland and when in Washington DC he attended the National Presbyterian Church, he said.

Rev Knox recalled how David was an enthusiastic participant in annual joint services with the neighbouring St Coleman’s Catholic Church in Lisburn.

“He would have been supportive of all that. He was regarded slightly askance by the more conservative people [within the wider church], of which there were quite a few. But his faith was a reconciling faith, most definitely.”

Rev Knox noted that David was also a member of the Orange Order, but suggested that he had not taken an active role for some 20-30 years.

When David and John Hume were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for securing the Good Friday Agreement, Rev Knox decided they had to mark the occasion. “David came in about 10 minutes early as he usually did on Sunday and everybody clapped for him. He was clearly embarrassed, but you had to do something.”

He noted that David had a very egalitarian approach to church and actively mixed with people from all walks of life every week in church. The cleric saw him at Harmony Hill as recently as six weeks ago. “He was still a very regular attender.”

He also noted that while David had voted against LGBT legislation as an MP, he then amended his views and publicly supported his daughter Vicky when she entered a same-sex marriage in 2017. “If you love your family that is what you do, I think. I respect his decision.”

Just before Covid, he recalled a special worship service at Harmony Hill attended by Catholics and Protestants. “And David chose a modern version of Psalm 1, ‘Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly’.

“It sort of sums up his beliefs in many ways because he was a man of great integrity, I always found. He stood up and talked about it and I remember he said he wished we sang it more often. In my view he was the greatest Ulsterman who ever lived.”