Jeffery Stanford Agate

Jeffery Stanford Agate (1919 –1977) was the Managing Director of the DuPont manufacturing plant at Maydown, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He was shot dead by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) outside his home at Talbot Park, Derry as he returned from work on the evening of 2 February 1977.

Early life Agate was the only son of Carlton and Ethel Agate. He was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, India where his father was employed as an engineer. He had two older sisters, Theodora and Cynthia.

Educated in England, Agate achieved a BSc in Engineering. During the Second World War, he saw active duty on as a Temporary Lieutenant (E) in the Royal Navy. The nationalist former mayor of Derry Raymond McClean, who had worked as a medical doctor at the DuPont plant, later described Agate as "an honest and just human being of the highest calibre. His assassination by the IRA left me in total disbelief and disgust."

Agate's widow, Alice Vera Agate (née Dand) returned to her native Newcastle upon Tyne where she lived in relative isolation until her death in 1994. The Agates had no children.

Agate's murder was the first in a series of IRA attacks on businessmen. The IRA claimed that "hose involved in the management of the economy serve British interests. They represent and maintain economic interests which make the war necessary."