Colonel Sir Michael William McCorkell KCVO OBE CStJ TD JP DL (3 May 1925 – 13 November 2006) was an Irish born soldier and British public servant, serving as Lord Lieutenant of County Londonderry for 25 years.

Michael shot chamois on Hermann Göring's mountain estate in Austria (the heads of the chamois were fine ones because the Luftwaffe had dropped hay to the beasts on the hill) and he kept the Mess in trout with regular forays to the Alpine streams and lakes; and cavalrymen were in their element here, with the pick of the liberated Austrian and German horse flesh at the allies' disposal.

McCorkell was involved in two enormous tattoos at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna and at the Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium) in Berlin, where he and others performed cavalry trick rides.

[10][11] In extreme secrecy, what is now believed to have been the first meeting between the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and senior officials of the British Government took place at Ballyarnett, Colonel Sir Michael's family home, on 20 June 1972.

The meeting lasted four hours and the British side informed the IRA representatives that while Willie (later Viscount) Whitelaw refused to offer political status, he was prepared to suspend arrests of republicans and searches of homes.

Sir Michael's cousin Moyra, married James Chichester-Clark (later Lord Moyola, former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland).

[citation needed] Upon his death at age 81, a Thanksgiving Service was held in St Columb's Cathedral, Derry for Sir Michael.