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William "Billy" Reid (1 January 1939 – 15 May 1971) was a volunteer and Staff Officer in C Company,...

William "Billy" Reid (1 January 1939 – 15 May 1971) was a volunteer and Staff Officer in C Company, Third Battalion of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Reid was responsible for the death of the first British Army soldier killed in The Troubles and was later killed as he attempted another ambush of British Army personnel. Reid was from Sheridan Street near to Duncairn Gardens, in the New Lodge area of Belfast. He grew up in Regent Street in the Carrickhill area of North Belfast. Reid attended schools in the North Belfast area and then became a joiner by trade. Reid enjoyed cycling, art and music and played the trumpet as well as writing his own songs. Reid also boxed at an amateur level for the Holy Family Club in Belfast. Reid is reported to have shot dead Gunner Robert Curtis of the British Army in Belfast on 6 February 1971; Curtis was the first on-duty British soldier to be killed in Ireland since the 1920s. Gunner Curtis' shooting is seen as the beginning of the all-out war between the Provisional Irish Republican Army and British forces. The day after the shooting of Curtis, the Unionist Prime Minister, Major James Chichester-Clark stated that